You've Got Five Pages, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, to Tell Me You're Good.

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Oh, this is a fun one, my fellow creatives. Jesse Q. Sutanto has a marvelous narrative voice for Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, which made this first chapter a delight to read. Even though this chapter is exposition, we as readers can still see the unfussable Vera Wong launch herself into her morning routine. While this may not sound very interesting for a hook, the narrator's lighthearted, playful tone mixed with Vera's eccentric personality hook readers into loving this old lady very quickly. Plus, using the exposition helps us realize that this morning routine isn't unique or special to the narrative--rather, this is how she always is, from texting her son at 4:31am to tell him he should be awake, to counting every one of her 3,112 steps on her morning walk. Yet even this first chapter is not without its emotional weight, for that same morning walk takes her by the tai chi group her husband, long passed, used to attend. In fact, the chapter ends with Vera, while resolute and determined to continue her day as normal, cannot completely silence her sadness over the dwindling relationship with her son since her husband passed. It's an artfully done first chapter, full of humor and uniqueness with an emotional tug at the end...all disguised in an elderly lady's morning routine. And what will you learn from these opening pages? Let's find out! Cheers!