Finish Your First Chapter
A 30-day writing sequence, where one task a day builds toward a complete first chapter.
Whether you've been ruminating on an idea for years or you've started a dozen chapters that never went anywhere, this course is built to get you to the end of one complete first chapter, one achievable step at a time.
Each day, you'll receive a new task based on where you are in the process: finding your premise, building your protagonist, finding your opening line, and eventually, drafting and finishing the chapter itself. Every task is short (most take between fifteen and thirty minutes) and builds directly on the one before it.
This isn't about writing a perfect chapter. It's about finishing one: imperfect, real, and yours, so you have something to build from, revise, or take further.
How does it work?
After enrolling in this course, you will have access to the first day's task. Each day for the next 29 days, we'll email you to let you know that day's task is ready, then you log into the course to see it.
If you miss a day, you can pick up where you left off, or do two in one day to catch up, whatever works for you.
Although the goal is to finish your chapter within thirty days, you'll have lifetime access to every day's task, so you can pause and resume the course at any time, or revisit the sequence for a future project.
Each week, you'll focus on one area to help you build your first chapter:
Week 1: Foundations
This week is all decisions and no drafting. You'll be asked to complete six short tasks, effectively making the foundational decisions that will help the drafting go quickly when you get there.
Week 2: Character and Voice
Now that you've defined what your story is about, this week is about who is telling it and how they sound.
Week 3: Scene Craft
This is the week the drafting begins in earnest!
Week 4: Draft and Complete
The last stretch, and the one that asks the most of you, so ensure you've put a little more time aside. Four of these days ask for writing sprints of thirty to forty-five minutes.
This course is suitable for anyone with an idea for a novel who hasn't yet finished a first chapter, including complete beginners. While you can use it as you wish, it has been designed for fiction, rather than memoir or other nonfiction.
For more information, see our FAQ below.
Course level: Aspiring, Emerging and Developing
Writing NSW members receive a $10 discount. Contact Writing NSW for your discount code. Not a member? Join here.
Your Instructor
Writing NSW is the state’s leading provider of services to writers, including courses, seminars and workshops, writing groups, festivals and events, grants and prizes, and information and advice. A not-for-profit organisation formerly known as the NSW Writers’ Centre, we have been providing quality support to the writers of our state since 1991.