On Writing : Page One by Debbie Seagle

Personally, character. It's easy to care when the trouble is huge enough, but as it gets smaller, it's easier to care less (cynical as it might sound). Unless it's happening to someone I care about, then no tragedy is too small. I figure that's a human enough bias that I'd rather try to work with it.

.... I probably should worry more about voice, though.

I multi task, by attempting all three, writers voice, characters that leap off the page & initial set up has fire, with urgency. The latter is crucial, cos the very first impression must be a page turner. Readers of the spec pile, for producer’s remits, may not even last, the first ten pages. Also, many pages on, there can still be no clear concept, the protagonist’s needs, the antagonist (or conflict that opposes them) & stakes.

For me, - especially with Deadly Dutch High,- it’s never just one of those. Page one has to feel like you’ve stepped into something that was already alive before you arrived.

I lean hardest into atmosphere + tension first. The voice comes through that naturally, and the character is revealed by how they react to what’s already wrong.

In DDH, the world itself is watching… so page one isn’t about explaining, - it’s about feeling observed, slightly off-balance, like something just beneath the surface is waiting. That’s the hook.

If I can land that quiet unease, where readers don’t fully understand what’s happening but know something isn’t right, they’ll follow the character into whatever comes next.

So yeah… voice, character, trouble, they all matter.

But I want the reader to feel like they’ve already walked into trouble before the first line even finishes.

Debbie, great question, landing a compelling character in a moment of tension often naturally brings both voice and intrigue together on page one. For writers refining those openings, Stage 32’s script services and feedback sessions can be incredibly helpful, and we’re always here to support and guide you!

It really depends on the story. At some point in my writing, I have done all three, with a lean toward either voice or character. For feature scripts, I try to stay as close as possible to the recommendation of having the inciting incident by page 10, so what I do on page one is often influenced by that and subsequently tailored to the needs of the story.

Debbie Seagle for me, it’s a balance, but if I had to choose, I’m usually trying to land clarity of tone and voice first, because that tells the reader what kind of experience they’re about to have. From there, I want to quickly anchor the reader into the character’s POV and ground it in something that hooks them and makes them want to learn more, something with a bit of propulsion, even if it’s subtle.

Great question.

For me, the first page is about establishing tone and emotional direction immediately — so the reader understands the psychological world they’re stepping into.

If that foundation is strong, character and tension naturally follow.

Page one must include conflict and dialogue, or action at the end that makes the reader want to turn the page.

Trouble. You need to introduce the conflict ASAP.

The story theme (i.e.: an encapsulation of what is wrong and what needs changing or solving)

To me I think Page one should hook the reader with immediate tension (something feels wrong), a strong, engaging voice, and a character we’re curious about—in that order of priority.

The best openings blend all three at once: a character in a slightly unsettling situation, written in a way that feels distinct and pulls you in.

Your voice needs to scream off the page in page one. It can be a quiet scream, loud, but a vibe to show the reader you aren't screwing around and to buckle up.

I tend to think page one sends the reader's grey matter into, a place where a kernal of truth might be hidden.

I try and grab attention in the first paragraph... but I understand all stories are different!

I think you have to do all of them, but fundamentally it's a character that makes you want to watch/read. You can have all the trouble you like, but if we don't care about the character (and why this is the worst kind of trouble for them) then the stakes won't satisfy. Same with the voice - you need it to draw you in, but if it's not backed up by character and story it becomes just style over substance.

For me, pages 1 to 5 are absolutely a promise.

They are a promise of tonal style, a suggestion of the character arc to come, and an early signal that this protagonist is someone worth following. Not because everything is explained, but because something in their perspective, behavior, or predicament makes us lean in.

Voice matters, trouble matters, character matters, but what really hooks me is the feeling that the writer is in control and knows exactly what kind of experience they are inviting us into. That is what makes me keep reading.

Yes. LOL ;-)

It's worth noting that page one is one of the LAST things that I write. I'm a staunch believer in outlining, developing using treatments, and even using "scriptments" to prevent diving into a scene and just "filling in the blank". So, by the time I'm refining my first page, I know the ending I'm setting up, I know the action that follows it, I know THE most important person and how to set them up (and the tone). Does it always work? Absolutely not - even page one is going to go through a "puppy draft", but usually by the time I get to it, I'm one draft away from a polished draft. EDIT: Y'all, professional novelists do this ALL.THE.TIME! To the point where they will add their 3-5 sentences of what happens at the top of their chapter, and then just have a great time getting from one place to the other within that assigned chapter. Screenwriters could learn a thing from their process!

Because page one is meant to be a "HOOK", I would say you have to give yourself MORE grace to go through multiple iterations. That is to say if you go through 10 drafts of your script, let yourself come up with 20 different openings. That way you can find the best intersection of all the things an opening needs to do. For example, an opening image that contrasts against the closing image. An opening that contrasts against the next story beat, the opening having enough contrast within itself to set up the main conflict (I love using Ted Lasso as an example), the opening setting up the tone for project, the opening setting the pace for the project, the opening honoring the medium (because features are different than shows), etc. etc.

So... don't choose ONE. Every opportunity you can create a scene that does multiple things at the same time, DO IT. The great challenge of the visual medium is compressing space and time. Great question! Looking forward to having you back in the Coverage Report - maybe we can workshop that first page for you?

Cheers! K. Ross

PS - Just now noting that this is posted in the AUTHORING Lounge, allow me to say that I've also been studying adaptations recently (for my new YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@storymath.online ), and I noticed how the best ones start with the inciting incident as well. Now, this is often true for features and tv series as well, but when your first 3 sentences of a 579-page novel, that is MASTERFUL writing. Start the action FAST, give us room to ruminate with our character's internal world, and then get back to the action.

Character, 100%. I try to establish who they are as quickly as I could, followed by the world they're inhabiting.

When I finally decide to commit words to page for a script, I have the story and characters mostly figured out, so I start by trying to nail the tone.

Have you ever watched a series pilot or a movie intro and it takes forever to "get to the point"? You have to hook the audience quickly or risk being seen as boring. Pages 1-5 equals that first 5 minutes, all of us have to make it count.

I think of it like a term paper with the intro paragraph containing the character, the conflict (not giving everything away) and the tone Debbie Seagle

I’ll offer my perspective from the producer side, which may help some of the writers here. When I’m reading a script and considering it for development/production, I’m looking for a strong character with a solid motive to overcome a legitimate problem. Typically the standard is to have the catalyzing event within the first 10 pages (roughly), though if the characters are interesting enough to keep me engaged, I often find myself willing to read into the next 10-20 pages or through the first act. Beyond that is where the distinct voice, style, and/or interesting plot points keep me engaged. For me, the initial spark comes from having a definitive story with established stakes and a compromised character. This tells me it will not only be engaging, but has a higher potential for marketability.

For me, the HOOK, that makes someone read more.

I try for a line of dialogue that will establish time, place and character. The opening sentence in one of my novels, is "Mr. McGuire, are now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?" asked Senator Richard Nixon. This instantly gives the reader the time, place and sets up the conflict for the primary character.

For me, the first page has to introduce the main protagonist, their background, and their family.

Since my stories often revolve around global catastrophes, the first page also needs to show a quick glimpse of normal daily life before the disaster.

For me, this is a way to celebrate ordinary life first, so the audience can feel the emotional contrast between the world before the catastrophe and the world after it.

As an "Unpublished" Writer, I always design the story and plot, PATH(S), before writing the script. My approach is, to take an important feature of the main Character, that changes the plot/story, or, acts as a continuing issue or feature, during the script and, offer an unexplained, TEASER, to capture the audience with innuendo/intrigue/sub-text.

This way, I feel that I don't need back-story to begin the journey, for the audience.

I have placed fairly high-up in contests and my Script Analyst likes my approach... Cheers All!!

i establish the main character and their background first

I like to either 1) Pull the audience in emotionally or 2) Excite them with action

For me, when I write the script, before I write, I make the characters clearly to help me in making the story and what this character will do with the event of the story.

Tension. Start with tension. I think about Fargo's opening scene, and how tension was created. It can be in the people's voices, a look, a single word. But you must establish tension. In my vampire's opening scene, you have children playing in an olive grove in Greece, when a hand sticks up out of the ground. Tension. No matter how you do it, music, a word, a look.

Ernest Hemingway began novels with dialogue to instantly immerse readers in the action, character dynamics, and thematic tension, bypassing lengthy, traditional descriptions. This "iceberg theory" approach used terse, realistic dialogue as the visible "tip," leaving the deeper emotional weight and character backstory to be inferred through subtext and action.

A great opening line. Ian Fleming in particular was a master of them.

Usually Page One is what I hope to nail on Page One.

But seriously, Page One is usually when I'm still figuring out what the story is and what I'm doing with it, so establishing a tone and voice for myself more than anyone else is what I do.

A great opening exposition. Every character from major to minor protagonists always introduces and interacts, then when background characters mock the major character. They would ignore their rants. It's just a matter of a simple action line, parenthetical reactions while in dialogues, even feeling reactions in the action lines. When it's bipedal animal characters, I have to be more specific about their facial reaction or body reaction through their animal instincts like fur bristling or ears swivel up or down. My answer is all of the above.

All of that and more. I don't want the reader, and eventually the viewer, to be able to look away. I want page 1 to become page 100 before they realize what happened. That means my first page can't politely ask the reader to follow along. It has to pull, compel, or sometimes drag the reader along. That's the bar I try to write toward. So it all has to land.

That first page has got to grab the reader's attention - showing the main character and throwing him into an emotional scene right away. Making sure that he's someone whose journey we want to follow.

For me, it is the structure. I lay out the main structure of my story/script, and then it grows organically like a snowball.

For me, the first page isn’t just about grabbing attention — it’s about creating a feeling that something is off, even if the audience can’t fully define it yet.

I tend to focus on a character in a moment of subtle internal tension, where the external world feels normal, but something beneath the surface is already shifting. That quiet disturbance is what pulls me in more than immediate action.

Once that emotional hook is in place, everything else — conflict, stakes, escalation — can grow organically from it.

Debbie Seagle For me, page one is about landing who the character is and what they do. Their behavior, rhythm, choices, and environment should reveal them immediately. If the audience understands the person, the voice and trouble can grow naturally from there.

That’s a great way to approach it — when behavior and environment reveal the character early on, it creates a natural entry point for the audience.

I also find it interesting how even a subtle internal tension on page one can add another layer — where we understand who the character is on the surface, but sense that something deeper is already shifting beneath it.

That combination of clarity and quiet disturbance can make the opening feel both grounded and compelling.

Debbie Seagle, the first thing we need to be careful about is the opening—especially the first page. It shouldn’t feel engineered just to grab attention; it has to flow naturally into the rest of the story. At the same time, it still needs to draw the audience in. The balance is important. Because in the end, it’s not just that one scene that defines the film—it’s how well it sets up everything that follows.

That balance is really key — when the opening feels organic yet still draws you in, it sets the tone for everything that follows.

Debbie Seagle On page one, I focus on grounding the audience in the character and their world. I want the starting point to feel clear and real, so when the conflict arrives, it actually means something.

That grounding really makes a difference — when the world and character feel clear from the start, the conflict carries much more weight.

Debbie,

I think it depends on the story — but for me, it usually starts with tension.

Even before voice or character fully settles, I’m drawn in when something feels slightly off or already in motion.

That quiet pressure is what makes me stay.

I really connect with that — that subtle sense that something is off can be more powerful than immediate action.

When that quiet tension is present from the start, it creates a kind of emotional pull that keeps the audience engaged even before they fully understand why.

I go for trouble that starts smoking immediately. I write murder suspense/thrillers and I find that grabbing them from the start (I use a Prologue) is critical. In the first book in my murder suspense series, 'The Murder Game', I actually had four different murders happen in the Prologue that really set the stage and hinted at the 'game' within.

Hard to accomplish all on one page but I strive to set the tone of the film and achieve an emotional hook for the main character…in my latest animated film the hero protagonist is a former stray turned Mercy Dog sleeping on a pile of sandbags in a WW1 trench and dreaming of a home and family while the distant sounds of battle are OS…

That’s a powerful image — combining tone with an emotional hook like that really pulls you in instantly.

It's hard to pin down the exact thing that I'd want to if I was doing a commercial video and use the first page as a hook. For example the feature film that I'm finishing post currently I had the film start off with a police chase scene that happens in the 3rd act of the film. On another sci-fi I wrote called The Procedure I had the film start off with a commercial for product that's the main theme of the film. For another comedy that I wrote I had the film start off with the scene in the end of the film.

That’s interesting — starting from later points in the story really changes how the audience connects with it.

Sachin Yadav well we used to do that in marketing videos or in commercials to hook the viewer into getting interested and I guess I just went from there. On the feature that I'm finishing Pure Vortex I originally didn't know how to start and then at one point just thought that part of the police chase scene would be great and combined together with the forth wall break that comes right after it works great.

That’s interesting — especially combining the chase with a fourth wall break. It must create a very unique opening.

Sachin Yadav originally I wrote a voice over into the screenplay of the main character, but then during production I thought to myself what if I just put the main character into a jail cell and let them do the forth wall break like they were telling the story and if needed I can use the footage of him in the jail cell or just use the voice as a voice over, depending on how it works out in post. It couldn't have worked out better and as a bonus at the beginning you see the chase scene and then him in jail. Of course the story doesn't end with the chase in the third act but the character's arc has a nice finish that the viewer is not expecting.

That’s a really smart way to approach it — using the jail setting for the fourth wall break adds a strong narrative layer, especially after the chase. It sounds like the structure really pays off for the character.

It depends on the story, but ideally, all three! I always want my voice to snap on page one, and I usually tend to brew up some trouble, as well. It can be tough to make an audience care deeply about a character on page one, but I at least want the reader to want to know more about the character(s) by the end of the first page.

That’s true — getting the reader curious about the character early on can be just as important as the hook itself

Act I Scene 1. Get to the story, have only the characters you need and don’t fuss. Keep looking back at Page one to make sure the mechanics and story work and move forward. Go back often and check but don’t get stuck on page one. You won’t know page 1 is right until you get to the last scene, compare and fix as needed. Scene one is usually one of the last things that are finished.

For me, page one is about creating a feeling more than just dropping information.

I like to start with something big or intriguing—something that pulls you in and makes you pause for a second.

Then I let it settle into "normal life", but with that quiet sense that something isn't quite right... like there's more beneath the surface.

I want the audience to feel early on that they're stepping into a world where things aren't as they seem—even if the characters don't fully realize it yet.

That’s a great point. I agree — it’s easier to shape page one once the full story is complete.

I agree — that quiet sense that something isn’t right is what keeps the audience curious from the very beginning.

I think it depends on the script, but any writer on any script needs to hook their reader on page 1. How you go about that is determined by the genre.

Absolutely — the hook is essential, but the way it’s delivered really depends on the tone and genre of the story.

Trouble first. The voice and the character will come through in how they react to the trouble. If page one doesn't have something already going wrong, I'm probably starting too early.

Strong point. Starting with conflict really pulls the reader in.”

Hi Debbie,

Great question—because page one isn’t really about choosing between voice, character, or trouble. It’s about locking all three into a single, coherent signal.

From a script doctor’s perspective, what I’m trying to land on page one is a controlled promise of experience.

Voice gives us how the story feels.

Character gives us who we’re investing in.

Trouble gives us why we should stay.

But what matters is whether they’re aligned from the first moment.

If I had to prioritize one diagnostic element, it would be this:

immediate narrative tension that reveals character through behavior, not exposition—delivered in a distinct tonal frame.

In other words:

not just trouble, but trouble that expresses character and defines the voice simultaneously.

Because the first page is less about information, and more about orientation:

What kind of emotional contract are we entering?

What kind of storytelling intelligence is guiding us?

And can we trust the writer to control the experience?

One practical test I often use:

If you remove the dialogue and just observe the action, does page one still communicate

tone, character, and conflict in motion?

If yes, the page is working.

If not, it may read well—but it hasn’t hooked structurally.

In the end, page one isn’t trying to impress—it’s trying to establish authority.

And authority, on the page, comes from clarity of intent under pressure.

Good point about tension revealing character. When action alone communicates tone and conflict, the page really works.”

If you can establish why you wrote this story with page 1, I think you won. Jurassic Park's intro is not just about showing a dinosaur eating a poor handler; it's about showing unchecked greed.

That’s a powerful way to look at it. I like how you framed page one as more than just an introduction — but as a statement of intent for the whole story. The Jurassic Park example really highlights how theme can be embedded right from the start.

Do you think writers sometimes over-focus on grabbing attention and miss the opportunity to establish deeper meaning on page one?