First chapter reminders, with thanks to Louise Doughty

You might remember I've set myself a March 31 deadline to rewrite the first chapter of my novel. Of course, the first thing I realised is that until I figure out a good structure for the novel, I won't even know what the first chapter is, but I have a pretty good idea of that now. (Admittedly only for the first half of the novel, but that's a good start).

Yesterday morning I even woke up with some opening lines - even though I haven't consciously been thinking about the story that much - so something must be going on in that mysterious mind of mine.

And then this morning a friend dropped over a Louise Doughty novel called Honey-dew - I was inspired by her after seeing her speak a couple of times at the Perth Writers Festival - and having read the first chapter over my macaroni lunch, I was reminded of some points to remember as I rewrite my own first chapter:

1. Opening sentences are important. Doughty's in Honey-dew is "It was four days before the bodies were discovered, by which time Mr Cowper had begun to mottle."
   
2. But it doesn't have to be all action. Doughty starts with two short paragraphs mentioning a husband and wife whose bodies have been found, but then spends a long paragraph on the weather, and lets the narrator explain something of their garden, which obviously doubles as character description, but in a "show don't tell" kind of way.
3. I don't know the right term for it, but something like "premonitions" are important too. Leaving small hints about what is to come, or what might be to come - leaving open questions for the reader.
4. And more on the "show don't tell" - Doughty doesn't tell much at all. The narrator is a newspaper reporter, but we first see her at home in the garden, then in court - and we don't know why she's in court, only that she goes there regularly. The facts just become somehow obvious as we read on.
5. Leave things hanging. Finish a chapter with a reason for the reader to keep reading. Not a trashy Hollywood "who's he going to use the knife on" kind of reason, but something that's open, and interesting.