Writing that Killer First Chapter with Romance Author Susanna Strom

Writing That First Killer Chapter with Romance Author Susanna Strom

Matt: Welcome back to Write Out Loud the podcast where stories come to life. The words leap off the page. I'm your host, Matt, and as always, I'm joined by the brilliant effervescent, endlessly energetic and downright dazzling. Christina.

Christina: What does effervescent mean in this context? I,

Matt: It just means

Christina: that I've

Matt: super, probably,

Christina: I

Matt: and it

Christina: it makes me think of what is alop flop fizz.

Matt: you are ELCA Seltzer for the Soul, my dear. That is what you are. So that works. That works well.

Christina: Oh, if only people knew,

Matt: So today.

Christina: you think.

Matt: Today we are cracking open. One of the most important parts of any book, the first chapter. It's that crucial opening isn't just about setting the scene, it's about grabbing your reader by the collar and refusing to let go. I do want to introduce a very special guest who is with us as well.

please do. 

 We're excited to welcome a very special guest, romance author, Susan Strom. Welcome to the podcast, Susie.

Suzanna Strom: Thank you for having me. I'm

Matt: Absolutely. Absolutely. We are excited to talk to you today about this, and here's why we asked you to be here is because

Christina: Susie is one of my clients and she came to me with, her first full length novel. And, worked together on that book there was something. That happened and it was several fold. Susie handed in her first draft, and when I discussed the first draft with her and told her some things, was teaching her firstly about show versus tell.

We've had that, um, podcast discussion before and she literally blew me away when she sent me back her first chapter. After that first edit,

Matt: Hmm.

Christina: I actually went to my BFF and sent her to her and said, can you believe this? And I sent it to you and said, can you believe this? then even years later, um, I, I incorporated it into, my talks. I asked Susie's permission to be able to show them the first. The first draft and then the second draft. And, I think with Susie's permission, we'll also maybe post that, along our with, the podcast on our website. But give you a little bit of a rundown. Uh, the story is a, an apocalyptic pandemic and it opens with the main character who is a college student. Studying for tests and stuff, and her best friend runs in and says, we've gotta go pack a bag. And while that's exciting, Susie took on the challenge of the show versus tell, and to this day, wrote the most suspenseful, creepy shower scene. That can only be compared to psycho only in a sense that there's no man with a knife, you know, pulling the shower curtain. But she hears these noises and, things are happening around, like I said, we will, we'll get Susie's permission to post the chapter, yeah, and it just blew me away. That she could write, such an opening.

Suzanna Strom: Wow, thank you. I'm amazed. Think what I learned is I started the first draft in the wrong place and the reader didn't have any reason to care about Kenzie or what was going on with her. I

Matt: Hmm.

Suzanna Strom: dropped them into the action too quickly, and so I needed to

Christina: Yeah.

Suzanna Strom: something about. Kenzie, you find out that she's afraid of the dark

Matt: Hmm.

Suzanna Strom: pages, you get this sense of creepy foreboding, or that's what I was aiming for anywhere anyway, that something is going on in the dorm by the time her roommate rushes into the room hours later and says. If the world's going to pups on toast, we've got to, get outta here. Then you care about Kenzie and what she's

Christina: Yep.

Suzanna Strom: the mood has been set, and it just, it felt better, you know? I was

Matt: Yeah.

Suzanna Strom: happy you told me I started in the wrong place.

Christina: Yeah. And I, I, I don't know so much that it was, that you started in the wrong place, I think. Yes. You established that later that, hey, you know what, this isn't correct, but I think mine was that. It was all Okay, I've gotta catch our audience up on, what's happening in the world, is tell.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: And your, the way that you did, the creep factor, exponential scene, just up the ante of like, okay, you established this is not your average romance. This is, gonna take you places that you don't know you're gonna go. I think. For me, seeing that first chapter turn into what it was, this conversation even more interesting because, you didn't have it the first time around. You went back, after edits and said, okay. How can I do this? Better. And you just explaining that just now. I wasn't aware of that, either. 'cause we didn't talk about that. All we talked about was like, just like I said, my mind just, I couldn't handle it. It was like, I've gotta send this to everybody I know because you imagine how. How good, last week or was it the week before we were talking about the mystery

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: That's exactly what you wrote. You wrote the mystery box.

Matt: A hundred percent. Yeah.

Suzanna Strom: I tried

Christina: I.

Suzanna Strom: raise questions early on, like, why did someone turn the light off? Who walked past the shower curtain and didn't say, Hey. And so just drop hints that something is a little off in this world.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Suzanna Strom: is someone passed out in front of the TV in the TV room? And, you've always told me I can enrich the characters and enrich the chapters as I go, and that's one of my very favorite things.

That's why I love editing is my very favorite part of the writing process because I have the bones of a good story and I go in and add more and enrich the characters and deepen the relationships and just. Build on what I already have, and it's just, it's so much fun. So when

Matt: Yeah.

Suzanna Strom: hate editing, I just go, what are you talking about?

It's the,

Christina: Yeah,

Suzanna Strom: fun part of the process.

Matt: Well, I think you said something too in that first part where you were saying, you drop them into this, into the middle of the story, right? Like you drop them into that piece and it's something Christina says all the time, which is start where the story starts, right? Make, because it's gonna make people wanna know what's going on.

Like, wow, what, what's happening here? And just like we got done talking about with the mystery box piece, it's questions, questions, answers. Questions, questions, answers, not just questions, questions, questions, questions. Question, question, question, right? Mm-hmm. Correct.

Christina: And I think that the piece with, start where the story starts, it also takes away any of that stuff of like, okay, so in order for my audience to know who these people are, I have to give you a laundry list of things that happened before. The story opens and you really don't. For me, it's not necessary. You can drop it into the middle of the story. And even though Matt has not watched Paradise,

Suzanna Strom: Oh,

Christina: and I,

Suzanna Strom: that's a

Christina: so no, yeah, no spoilers. No spoilers, but I think they do the same thing. drop you into the middle of the action the beginning of the story. this is not a spoiler, because if you don't know this. Then you've not even watched or looked at anything or heard anything from Paradise. So I don't believe I'm giving out a spoiler, but the president is assassinated at the beginning

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: And then when they need to, they do, flashbacks.

But I want to go back to something that, Susie also said that, I wanna reiterate is that, she loves the editing process, so it doesn't necessarily matter what that killer first chapter is. You don't have to spend a lot of time on it in your first draft.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: can go back and rewrite it I actually have a client who does exactly that. She has these intriguing openings, but it's usually a scene. From somewhere in the book that she brings forward and, but she doesn't know what that scene is gonna be until, and a lot of times, we'll sit and discuss, if, now this isn't always, it's not always that she does this, but some of them that she does, we actually say, here's a really great. Suspenseful scene that you can bring to the fore and do what it is, what you do. So I don't think in writing a first chapter, you need to write a first chapter I.

Matt: Mm-hmm. Interesting. That's really interesting that you say that, and I think putting those two things together gives me a whole different perspective on it, because I hadn't thought about that before. You can actually write your entire book, tell your whole story, and then go back and say, what's the best way to start this off right Now that I know everything that's taking place, how do I really start this off so that I do gr like we said, grab the reader by the collar and just don't let go.

Christina: Yeah, it's like what Susie said, and, and Susie, feel free to chime in on this because as you're writing, you could come across something that like, oh, this is how I do that, or This is how I open, or I need to do this before, I do that. But what's important is. No one should skip the editing process.

And I'm not just talking copy editing, which is, grammar and that sort of thing. That's, yes, that's an absolute, you should absolutely do that no matter what, also, I don't believe in it once and handing it over to the copy editor. You owe it to yourself to do, even if you don't hire a developmental editor. You still owe it to yourself to go through and reread and rewrite it's that editing process that brings in the good stuff.

Suzanna Strom: Right.

Christina: think I've ever read a first draft that wasn't made 10 times better by a second draft.

Suzanna Strom: I think the standard advice is do not edit as you go. And some people even, say you should just vomit out a first draft. Don't do any corrections. Leave the typos behind. Leave blank spaces where you're going to fill in the details later. I can't do that. brain is not wired to leave a mess behind.

I, I

Christina: Yeah.

Suzanna Strom: the spelling. I, I think of something that can be improved. I try to improve it as I go. So I think Tina would tell you I write pretty clean first drafts,

Christina: Yep.

Suzanna Strom: my second drafts are always better because I, I turn over to Tina what I think is a decent first draft. My heart's always in my throat and I'm always

Matt: Hmm.

Suzanna Strom: say no, this one is the turd honey. But,

Christina: Yeah,

Suzanna Strom: So

Christina: I don't,

Suzanna Strom: hasn't happened,

Christina: Hey, I

Matt: No.

Christina: how many books have we done together? And I've never said that. I think Yes.

Suzanna Strom: But as much care and time as I put into writing the first draft, and I am slow, for me, 2000 words a day is a damn good day. Someday it's 500 words and I write almost all day. I'm at my desk from morning until late afternoon, but my second draft is always better because I read the first draft and say, okay, where can I hit the emotion harder? Where? Where can I make sure I put the backstory in at the right place so I don't dump it in the first chapter, which is like the kiss of death. That's what I did the first time I wrote my first book was I spent three changes pages giving the backstory and

Matt: Hmm.

Suzanna Strom: it was boring as all get out.

 My second drafts are always much better, even though I do write pretty clean first drafts. I know.

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: you do write, very clean. Or stress, but I think a lot of people don't understand what you're looking at. necessarily I need to correct stuff or something isn't working. What you're doing is you're adding the details.

Suzanna Strom: Mm-hmm.

Christina: are adding the things that make the story more rich because now that you know the whole story, you can then go back and go, wait a minute, you know what? I can put a little. Hint in here about what's gonna happen later on. Foreshadowing,

Suzanna Strom: Mm-hmm.

Christina: a little bit of a red herring in

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: that I know the story isn't going that direction, I can start to lead, people in the opposite direction and make it a twist. Make it a surprise. There's so many things that you can do with a second draft that you can't do during your first draft.

Suzanna Strom: play.

Christina: It's where you

Matt: Yeah.

Suzanna Strom: Mm-hmm.

Christina: And the thing is, I know that we're talking about the killer first killer chapter, you know? but the thing of it is when you finish that first draft, I don't think a lot of people realize. feel relief.

Suzanna Strom: Mm-hmm.

Matt: Hmm.

Christina: like, ah, okay, stress is over, and that's the moment that the creativity can open up. You know, that's why a lot of people don't, say don't stress about that first draft all it needs to be is done. You can go back and fix anything. What is Nora Roberts, her famous. I can fix anything but a blank

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: And so you can go back and do that . Let and let me tell you. I don't even know how many people, I've edited four. I'd have literally have to make a list and, check it off. I don't know anybody who writes a killer first chapter of the gate

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: unless it is where the story starts. My best friend passed away a few years ago, and she was a writer and she told me about story that she wanted to write, and the reason I'm being evasive is because her daughters have now taken over, her writing, so hopefully one of them will, do this story.

But she had the most unique opening, I've ever heard as a first, first chapter, first opening. But yeah, so if you don't know that sort of thing, like if you don't have the golden nugget in the beginning, write the book and then you can figure out, okay, best to start this story.

What do the readers need to know? Have to know. How much can I keep it? The mystery box? Yeah.

Matt: I think when you think about different techniques for starting that first chapter too, you can think about how it might be different from what people are expecting. So this could be a, an opening chapter that literally is. One sentence, right? Maybe it's an opening chapter that's just a couple of paragraphs and it's just the most nebulous kind of thing.

But it's enough because it's starting where the story starts. It's enough to keep you interested and want to know more and want to explore that. There's so many different ways that you can do it. And really, again, just grab people, pull them in, make them want to know more, and make them wanna turn that page.

 So experiment with it too. I think there's no. There's no real wrong way to do this other than all tell,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: right?

Christina: Yeah. Because then we do get bored and if we don't finish the first chapter, are we gonna finish

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: of the book?

Matt: I have absolutely put down books that the first, even the first page, didn't catch my attention.

Christina: I'm gonna paraphrase Stephen King, 'cause I can't remember the quote quite yet. But he says something like, you. You wanna invite the reader in, like,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: closer. I'm gonna tell you this story.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: in, you wanna hear this?

Matt: Yep.

Christina: know, I mean, we'll, I'll have to send that to you, Matt, so you can post it on the, on the page or, we'll, I'll post it to the social media when this episode airs. But that's exactly what you want. You wanna invite the reader

Matt: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Christina: I'm

Matt: I think the other thing that we're dealing with is the fact that attention spans keep getting shorter,

Christina: Yeah,

Matt: right? So if you don't. Grab their attention if you don't have that killer kind of first chapter, and again, we've talked all about how you get there. We're not saying you have to do it right away in, in terms of writing it, but when you're putting a book out there, that first chapter needs to grab people's attention.

Right? And this is just the ways that you can do that. And just think about how the, any of the stories that you've read yourself that have grabbed your attention that you just loved from the first page, because it was so. Either explosive or mysterious or whatever, but it just grabbed that attention and just would not let go.

Christina: Yeah. There's actually one, Julie Garwood book, that I actually used for a college paper as a, a reference. But literally it, it told us, that it was a historical, there was some bishop in there that was teaching young children and he was. Telling the kids that, at that time, were last in God's love. And literally Julie says, but this was a story about a girl who knew different. And I was

Matt: Hmm.

Christina: okay, I'm in.

Matt: Hooked.

Christina: in, I'm in. Yeah. but yeah, that's, a first chapter. Is inviting the reader in and the first chapter should absolutely give the audience the feelings that they're going to have

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: the rest of the book,

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: you

Matt: at least a precursor to it.

Christina: or a precursor to it.

And I

Matt: Yep.

Christina: why Susie, your chapter worked so well, because, know, that book was. Very suspenseful. It was, just,

Matt: Foreboding.

Christina: foreboding, and I think, if I'm not mistaken, those books, the first two books in that series, we worked on, maybe three drafts,

Suzanna Strom: I think

Christina: four drafts. And I told you, I remember telling you even after so many times of reading this, I can't wait to get back to these characters again.

Matt: Hmm.

Christina: know? 'cause I think that's, you did such a good job with setting the stage for, the entire series and, with that first chapter.

Matt: That's awesome.

Suzanna Strom: I think one of

Matt: I.

Suzanna Strom: compliments about the first book was you told me later while you were waiting for the second book that, you kept thinking about the characters and wondering what they were up to,

Christina: Yes.

Suzanna Strom: that

Christina: Yes.

Suzanna Strom: feeling, you know?

Matt: Yeah,

Christina: Yeah.

Matt: it really is.

Christina: I'm thinking maybe there's another book in that series, after all, because I'm missing them now

Suzanna Strom: Mm-hmm.

Matt: That's awesome. That's awesome.

Christina: as

Matt: Well, Susie, when you sit down to write, and especially those, I know you like the editing process right? And, and pulling it together, but, how much of the story is pre-planned versus just gonna go with the flow. I'm just curious.

Suzanna Strom: well. One of the reasons I think I had so much trouble producing story when I was younger was I knew myself and I said, I am an organized person who likes lists.

Matt: Hmm.

Suzanna Strom: like checking things off a list. I like certainty. I am not a particularly brave person. I like to have guardrails and know what's going on. So I assumed that I was a writer who would outline. And plot

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Suzanna Strom: would have the certainty of knowing where the story was going. And, that was what I tried to impose on myself.

Matt: Hmm.

Suzanna Strom: every time I started writing a book, it would peter out because I would just, the story would fall apart. I couldn't see, uh, enough to make a coherent outline. I came to realize that despite the fact that I like certainty and I like guardrails and I like predictability, I'm a person whose creative muse will go on strike if I try to impose an

Matt: Hmm.

Suzanna Strom: on a book. So when I sit down to write a book, I've told Tina this, everything I know about the book will fit on a note card. don't

Matt: Nice.

Suzanna Strom: studies. I think about. The two main characters a bit. I walk around and think about the book and the characters and what could happen to them, but I really don't know where it's going. I, I use what I call the tent pole method of planning. I know about where the story starts.

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Suzanna Strom: big that will happen in the middle, and I have some sense of where I want it to end. It's like the tent poles that will hold up the book,

Matt: Got it.

Suzanna Strom: I don't know the journey. I. And I not outline the journey because I have to live through it with my characters. I have to experience the scene with them and see who walks on the stage and see how they emotionally react to what's going on and move forward from there.

Matt: Oh, that's awesome. Okay. That's interesting. It's, it's different than what I had anticipated, but I think that, your answer's perfect in that. I think we're gonna have to have a whole other episode on that just by itself.

Christina: Yeah. And in fact it reminds me of, Scarlet Cole

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: on the podcast, she even said for her previous books, didn't she outline them thoroughly. But for some reason with this new series, she's actually better at. Just totally pantsing it.

Suzanna Strom: Mm-hmm.

Christina: you know, don't even wanna say halfway through her writing career, but she had written a good number of books. We're talking. 20 books or

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: she flipped. So it's interesting that, with Susie it is, not her norm

Matt: Mm-hmm.

Christina: fact the opposite of her personality. And with Scarlet Cole, it was like, it can change.

Matt: Yeah.

Christina: yeah, I think you're right. I think that's maybe a, future.

Matt: I don't think so. We'll have to explore that some more for sure. Well, there you have it. You're guide to writing a first chapter that grabs, hooks and won't let go. And if there's one thing to remember, it's this. Readers don't just need a good start, they need a reason to keep reading. So set the tone, create curiosity, and make every single word count, because that's what's important.

So if today's episode helped you at all, please just, we'd love to hear about it. Share your favorite first lines, whether it's your own work or a book that you love. Share it on social media. Tag us at at write out loud pod and don't forget, keep writing, keep crafting unforgettable stories and as always, write out loud.