How do you get the reader to continue reading past this first sentence? Or to put it another way: There is a technique to hook the reader. This whole first paragraph has to be easy to digest and must get the reader hooked on the story. Answer the question you asked in the first line but create a new bunch of mysteries the reader feels compelled to solve. How many times can I get compel into this paragraph? It must compel the reader to continue. You do want the reader to continue, don't you?

Okay, we're onto the second para. How are you going to fill this? Well, it is still the first page. Most readers will stick with a story for at least the first page - but if it gets boring... So, bring in something new: a vivid description, perhaps. Something that the central character is doing that is unusual - like hanging about in pouring rain. Why would anyone stand in pouring rain, unless there was some important reason that compelled them to? But what was that about a vivid description? Perhaps describe a scene that was desirable: a sunny beach on a tropical isle, a luxurious hotel room, a fantastic vista across beautiful countryside. Or maybe go the other way and describe the sort of squalor or carnage that most people rarely experience. And don't forget to write over this text - it won't look good in your story.

Well, you made it to the end of the first page. But does this first page set the scene for your story? Have you introduced the protagonist, or someone who will have a major impact on the protagonist's story? Maybe it's an event you have described rather than a character, but if the protagonist isn't mentioned yet, you might want to think about how you can flag up fact that what is happening will have a big impact on someone who has yet to enter the story. Oh, and if you're reader gets this far and is likely to say 'so what' you might want to go back and rewrite - but first magic marker the words 'compelling questions' on the back of your hands.

The end of the first chapter is still pages away. Don't forget a chapter is usually somewhere between an eighth and a thirtieth of the entire novel. Of course you may be writing a short story in which case the end of the chapter is probably the end of the story. Chapters should be a complete story in themselves so now you've done the start, think about the middle and the end. A chapter is a story within a story so you have also got to juggle the main story with the chapter story and make sure you've pushed the main story along but also left some questions unanswered to compel the reader to start the next chapter.

Think of the final line of the chapter as the first line of the next chapter.