: Re: Is the first page of a novel really that important? I am reading in a few blogs like this that the first page of the novel is really important if it has to get published. Is this true?

@Annie587

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Yes, the first page is vitally important. If your first page is boring or confusing, many readers will give up right there. If your response is, "But this story gets really exciting in chapter 5", the reader has no way to know that. He sees that the first page is boring and makes the not-unreasonable assumption that the rest of the story is probably equally boring.

I heard an agent say once that a writer told him, "My story really gets moving about page 10." His reply was, "Then throw out the first 9 pages."

As others have noted in their answers, there are many contrived and lame ways to make the first page more exciting. Like, start with a car chase, then go back and explain who is chasing whom and why. This usually fails because if the reader don't know who is chasing whom, he doesn't care. Opening with a scene of someone showing great emotion, crying or screaming or whatever, usually just makes me feel uncomfortable because I don't know this character yet. I feel like I'm butting in on someone's private moment. Etc.

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