Novelist's Syntax Cheat Sheet - Words that are often found at the beginning of the chapters of Literary Novels

The Magic of Starting Your Novel's Chapters

In terms of Writing Intros to chapters, certain words appear more frequently than others. Here are many of the most common ones

Other Grammatically Correct Story, Narrative, Shorts, and Novel Word-Starters

"The" - adjective ("The", "To The", "In The", "From The", "By The", "When The")

Such as:

·       The House on Haunted Hill

·       The Ocarina of Time

·       The Tree of Life

·       The Setting Sun

·       The Vast Valley on the Horizon

·       The Cemetery mid-morning

Others Include:

"It" - Pronoun Intro ("It was late at night when", "It was less than an hour to go until the car reached the state line." "It had not yet begun to rain on this cold Tuesday evening"

"Character Names" - Introductions, Verb Phrases, Brief Backstories ("When Phil Arrived At The", "By the time Ron got to the..."

"I, He, She, They, My, His, Her" - First, second, third person Pronoun sentence," - Pronouns, using sentences that start like "When I agreed to"... "or I arrived at the crime scene at", "I arrived at the house at 2:45", etc.)

"Dialogue" - Speech and Communication ("Did you see something back there? Said Harold Malcolm." "Oh God! What are you doing! Danielle screamed"