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r4p17 wrote:Of course it is fine! The novel that I am working on right now didn't have a stitch of plot sown in the first chapter or two. Albeit, my novel started out quite randomly based of of typos in the YWS chatroom. That'a a long story though...
I think that it is totally fine not to have plot in the first chapter. To be honest with you many books I have read are that way. Some have no plot at all until several chapters in to them.
On the other hand, you as the writer should plan your book well. It is always helpful to have your big pictured in the back of your mind. As you are writing. If only I could... I hope this helps!
Rosey Unicorn wrote:Okay, I'm going to turn this question a little on its head:
The spirit of your question is: if it's okay to have the main plot of the story start later on than the first chapter. The answer to this is "yes", for reasons outlined— it happens a lot in stories, and sometimes it takes awhile for the main plot to be discovered and it just wouldn't be realistic to have it be known so early, nor would it be enough time to care about the main plot.
However, you asked if it's okay to not have plot of the story starting at chapter one, which is a slightly different thing. Plot in its broadest sense is the characters making choices and going through events that impact them. Stuff happening to the characters, forcing them to make choices, is what makes a story interesting.
As a result, the answer to "can I not have a plot in chapter one" is no— you have to have something, anything at all, that grabs interest and makes us care for the character right off the bat. You can start off slowly, and you can rely on an interesting voice to carry you through for awhile, but you have to have something happen that's out of the ordinary enough, or revolutionary enough, that it grabs us. This introduction can carry us through to the main plot and be a subplot once the main plot takes over, or it can fizzle out in favour for the main plot once it comes around.
But chapter one has to have some kernel of plot in it to be passable. Whether or not it's the main plot is what you've got to determine.
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