Using Twitter, A Short Guide for Authors New to the Twitter-verse

by Bill Johnson

Twitter is a website (www.twitter.com) that allows people to join and post messages of 140 characters. When you join (it’s free), you can both ‘follow’ others and have ‘followers’ who receive messages you send (this message passed 140 characters with the word followers).

Twitter began as a way for people in a business to send messages (“meeting time changed to 1:30”), but it quickly became a way for people to send ‘tweets’ to friends, acquaintances, or anyone who signed up to follow a particular person.

Which made it of interest to writers looking for a way to promote books, events, blogs on writing, or just to stay in touch with other authors.

Willamette Writers, as an example, follows 2,015 people and has 2115 followers. I use the WW twitter account to send out announcements about WW meetings, activities, and events. But WW started at zero followers.

How do you gain followers?

If you’re a member of Willamette Writers interested in promoting yourself, click on the list of WW followers and find fellow authors to follow. A percentage of people you follow will, in return, follow you back.

(I suggest people limit this to 30 new followers a day. Past a certain point, you’ll get an automated pop up from Twitter saying you’re overdoing it. If you violate too many of Twitter’s guidelines (posted on their website), they will suspend or cancel your account.)

The Willamette Writers bulletin board has a new feature; you can post your name and twitter handle (the WW handle is @wilwrite; my handle is @bjscript) to ask people to follow you. It’s at http://willamettewriters.yuku.com/forums/12/Twitter-Follow.

You do need to pick a twitter handle that isn't being used by someone else.

If you want followers who have a specific interest, say science fiction conventions, you can look up Orycon in the Twitter search function and follow Orycon’s followers.

Personally, when I get new followers who are writers, I try to find a message of theirs I can ‘retweet’. This means I’m passing along someone else’s tweet, so it’s going out in their name, to my followers. Now that I do this, I pick up 10-15 new followers a day.

You can also, if it’s appropriate, copy and paste someone else’s message into a tweet that you send out, so the information goes out in your name. For example, you might pass along the name of the winner of the Oregon Book Award for fiction.

Once you join Twitter, you’ll find that all some authors do is send out messages (sometimes hourly) promoting their books. I do promote my book (A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling), but I also make an effort to pass along information of interest to others writers. Folks I feature for retweets include Jane Friedman (helpful tweets on the world of publishing and self-publishing), Porter Anderson (Porter attends writing conferences and posts about events and workshops), and Grammar Girl (posts about writing).

I also have a general rule: if someone retweets one of my tweets, I retweet one of theirs.

Being retweeted greatly increases the reach of Twitter. I have 3,485 followers. If I send out a tweet that is retweeted by someone with their own list of 3,000 followers, my tweet has now reached 6,000 people.

But… and it’s a big butt… the more followers someone has, the faster those short tweets accumulate and pass out of sight. So, if I follow one person who follows me, and we send each other one tweet a day, we’ll each see our tweets all day. But when I send out a tweet to 3,000 people, who also have their own lists into the thousands, those messages only appear briefly. I have found that when I send out a promotional tweet with a link it gets 30-60 hits.

You can see the value, then, of tweeting something that is retweeted. That’s why I post tweets about articles on writing I have posted at my website at http://www.storyispromise.com.

You can also post live links in a tweet, or include a photo (which counts against your 140 characters). Here’s an example of a recent WW tweet,

Registration information about the 2015 Willamette Writers conference Aug 7-9 PDX now available, http://www.willamettewriters.com/wwcon

(Feel free to tweet this announcement).

If you’re counting characters, you’ll notice this is longer than 140. Twitter will automatically shorten a link (as long as it includes the http://www).

Of course, for most of us, jobs, responsibilities, family, movies, and sleep take up much of our days. The great solution to that is a program called Twuffer (http://www.twuffer.com).  Twuffer is a free program that allows you to schedule tweets in advance. I can schedule a tweet to run, say, at 3 am and another at 6 am, when I’m normally asleep (or abnormally awake; or Abby Normal, to YF fans).

Here’s a recent tweet I posted to run late at night,

Registration information for the Willamette Writers Aug 7-9 PDX conference available: Willamette Writers Conference

Here I’ve used Bitly (www.bitly.com) to shorten a link, because anything posted on Twuffer has to be 140 characters or less or it won’t upload to Twitter.

You can also add a Hashtag to a tweet; that's a complicated name for using the pound sign, #. For example, if you are doing a book promotion on Amazon, you could add the hashtag #Kindle or #FREE or #Mystery. Anyone who types in the word Mystery in a search will more easily find your tweet. In 2014, WW used the hashtag #WWCon14 to help people attending the conference 'find' each other on twitter.

Twitter allows you to post a profile, which can include a link to a website and a photo or logo. If you're an author, it's important that you have a quality head shot or a good image of a book cover. What you post in your profile will help others find you. I have come across profiles so vague, I couldn't tell if it was for an author. Sometimes you can be too clever.

Once you start putting yourself out there in the twitter-verse, be aware you’ll get followers offering to get you thousands of new followers for $100 or less. Avoid this. You get computer generate ghosts (for more about this, Google the topic). You’ll also find yourself being ‘followed’ by people with services they want you to buy (you don’t have to follow them back) or people offering sexual services (you can block unwanted followers).

You can send a DM or direct message to people on twitter if you want to comment on someone’s tweet or introduce yourself, but DO NOT send DMs to strangers promoting your novel. Your account will soon be suspended or cancelled for sending out spam.

If you follow someone and discover it’s not the right fit for you, you can easily unfollow folks, but avoid following and unfollowing large numbers of people in the same day. It violates Twitter’s guidelines. You can use a program called ManageFlitter (www.managerfllitter.com) to find and unfollow people who rarely tweet or who don’t follow you back.

Personally, I unfollow anyone who tells me what they had for breakfast. If I wasn’t there, I don’t care.

You will come across people who have 50,000 plus followers. I would probably marry someone sight unseen to have access to that list, but that’s a topic for another day.

Twitter is not the be-all, end all for book promotion, but it is a tool that has its place, especially with a program like Twuffer to help with scheduling. And, there are many other tools (use Lists on Twitter to organize followers) and apps like Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com) that allow you to easily track what's happening with your tweets and followers.

Twitter can seem daunting from a distance, and time consuming, but using a few simple tools can make it a more productive experience.

Good luck, and happy tweeting.


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To read some of my longer reviews of popular movies, check out my writing workbook, A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, available on Amazon's Kindle and Smashwords.

Lyrical Writing, Notes on E Annie Proulx's The Shipping News

by Bill Johnson

Annie Proulx's The Shipping News is a great example of lyrical writing.   While her writing might seem to violate conventional writing, her style always aims at getting to a deeper truth.

Many years ago I attended a reading of published romance authors and unpublished authors. The published authors use lyrical writing judiciously.  The unpublished authors seemed to have bought adjectives on sale in 50 gallon barrels. Every pair of lips were some degree of throbbing, turgid, and swollen. It communicated nothing, unlike the published authors and Proulx.

In The Shipping News, the lyrical writing in the opening has the purpose of conveying the deeper truth of Quoyle. It is entirely organic, yet also part of a clearly defined structure.

Hitching that lyrical writing to a purposeful structure is part of what makes Proulx’s writing so dynamic and potent and insightful.

First line.

     HERE is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn
     and raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns.

This sentence offers commentary about Quoyle and the quality of his life
growing up. The language conveys much more than several pages of small towns. The
sentences gets to the heart of a truth about Quoyle.

Next paragraph.

     Hive-spangled, gut roaring with gas and cramp, he survived childhood; at
     the state university, hand clapped over his chin, he camouflaged torment with
     smiles and silence.

Another sentence and two more truths about Quoyle and his childhood and
college years.

Struggling writers usually invert this process, trying to get bland,
pedestrian details to convey something important.

     Stumbled through his twenties and into his thirties learning to separate
     his feelings from his life, counting on nothing.

This describes a character who's life is contracting, becoming less
important to him by the year.

     He ate prodigiously, liked a ham knuckle, buttered spuds.

Fat and lard, two of the most popular medications in America. As his life
contracts, Quoyle expands.

Next paragraph.

     His jobs: distributor of vending machine candy, all-night clerk in a
     convenience store, a third-rate newspaperman.

A life of no ambition and no feeling, until he becomes a third-rate
newspaperman. That sounds dramatically interesting.

Next sentence.

     At thirty-six, bereft, brimming with grief and thwarted love, Quoyle
     steered away to Newfoundland, the rock that had generated his ancestors, a place he
     had never been nor thought to go.

Grief and thwarted love apparently send Quoyle off to the place of his
ancestors to stew in his more recent failures. I'm assuming Proulx will get to what
set off this grief and thwarted love. We've quickly moved through an over of
Quoyle's life to its beginning in this novel.

Next sentence.

     A watery place. And Quoyle feared water, could not swim. Again and again
     his father had broken his clenched grip and thrown him into pools, brooks,
     lakes, and surf. Quoyle knew the flavor of brack and waterweed.

Sending Quoyle to Newfoundland and water  creates a vehicle to offer a
reason why he fears water. This is organic writing.

 Continuing.

     From the youngest son's failure to dog-paddle the father saw other failures

     multiply like an explosion of virulent cells--failure to speak clearly;
     failure to sit up straight; failure to get up in the morning; failing in attitude;
     failure in ambition and ability; indeed, in everything. His own failure.

This language conveys why Quoyle separated his mind from his feelings and
why he withdrew into himself. The world via his father started pounding him inward
at a young age.

Continuing.

     Quoyle shambled, a head taller than any child around him, was soft. He knew
     it. 

"Ah, you lout," said the father. But no pygmy himself. And brother Dick,
the father's favorite, pretended to throw up when Quoyle came into a room,
hissed "Lardass, Snotface, Ugly Pig, Warthog, Stupid, Stinkbomb, Fart-tub,
Greasebag," pummeled and kicked until Quoyle curled, hands over his head,  

sniveling, on the linoleum. All stemmed from Quoyle's chief failure, a failure of 

normal appearance.

In a short time, Proulx communicates the truth of Quoyle’s life.

            A great damp loaf of a body. At six he weighed eighty pounds. At

            Sixteen he was buried under a casement of flesh. Head shaped

            Like a Crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair ruched back. Features as

            Kissed fingertips. Eyes the color of plastic. The monstrous chin, a

            Freakish shelf jutting from the lower face.

Then, after Quoyle drops out of college…

            Nothing was clear to lonesome Quoyle. His thoughts churned

            Like the armophous thing that ancient sailoers, drifting into arctic

            half-light, call the Sea Lung; a heaving sludge of ice under fog

            where air burred into water, where liquid was solid, where solids

            dissolved, where the sky froze and llight and dark muddled.

Here Proulx moves from an outer description of Quoyle, to language that conveys the truth of his inner life.

Qyoyle is a man who has been damned since birth, who, during the course of this novel, travels to the edge of the world to find a place he might belong. This will not be an easy journey, but it will be one deeply felt by the novel’s readers.

This kind of lyrical language works when it takes a story’s reader deep into the heart of a story and it’s characters, and Proulx does that here.

                        *************************

Bill Johnson is the author of A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, available on AmazonKindle for $2.99 and on Smashwords.  He teaches workshops on writing around the US. He is currently the office manager for Willamette Writers, a group in the Pacrific Northwest with 1,700 members.

No Pressure. Really. It’s Just Your Follow-up Novel, by Damon Ferrell Marbut

The novel following a debut tends toward two basic anxieties:

1. The second book must live up to the first, provided the debut received critical praise.

2. The second book, if a sequel or as part of a series, must also cover 1. but additionally either lend the attachment to the first book a satisfying finality or give room for extension of the series.

Agents, editors and publishers can have significant effects on the labor of creating a new book as a product to market and from which to profit. Or, the self-published author managing his/her own career trajectory might be as nervous based on personal performance expectations. But then, the latter could be comfortable with a follow-up novel because producing the first yielded for them a sense of security in the industry.

I don't find myself in either listed scenario above. Once realizing my current work was becoming a new novel I began determining multiple forms of space in which to write, including schedule and the necessarily quiet physicality of the work itself. I only thought of the book as a follow-up once the first draft was finished after Christmas 2012. I did, by nature, consider my debut, Awake in the Mad World, before recognizing further that the new book is uniquely its own and beyond my scope of comparison.

Also, my debut wasn't really a debut. I wrote three novels and a 220-page collection of letters in addition to 2-3 volumes of poems before Awake in the Mad World published. I understand many authors don’t consider themselves writers until they publish and also experience this same phenomenon. They write prolifically and then choose which manuscript to forge ahead with to press. Others do not. They spend years letting a story marinate and then perhaps take years to write it.

Accepting pressure to perform is too much thinking work in terms of the second book. It's unwelcome distraction. I hope for evolution with each book I write and wish not to compete with those that come before it. I don’t write in serial. New characters lead themselves into original existence without attachment to those of my former novels. I believe the initial commitment and compulsion to a story, to characters, to the art of narrative and experimentation should be the only drive behind continuing to write. Writing because I must. The audience creates itself around my work, as well as defines its impact. To consider anything other than what is written best in the moment is to kill the follow-up before it is finished.

                              +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Bio:

Damon Ferrell Marbut is a Southern novelist and poet. He is author of Awake in the Mad World, which is currently an entrant for the Pulitzer Prize. Originally from Mobile, Alabama Marbut now lives in New Orleans, Louisiana where he is finishing a new novel set in the Big Easy.

Links:

Website: www.damonferrellmarbut.com

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Damon-Ferrell-Marbut/e/B008E72MCK

Karen Azinger's The Poison Priestess Reviewed on Goodreads

"Desire is often the greatest poison."

One of, I think, the greatest lines I have read in any book. In addition to providing a fantastic commentary on our world it perfect serves to sum up Ms. Azinger's most recent book. Please understand, I don't mean to say desiring the book too much poison's the experience, but that the book itself perfectly blends poison and desire into one of the best fantasy books I have read in the past twelve months.

Every time I pick up one of the Silk and Steel books I do so with a certain amount of trepidation. Could this book possibly be as good as the past one/two/three have been? And each time I have been happy to answer that yes, yes they could. This time I can say that this book is in fact BETTER than those which preceded it, something I never expected to say.

The Poison Priestess begins during the same time frame as the Skeleton King, except where that book focused on event to the north or Erdhe this book contains itself to the south. For fans of the stories of Liandra, Steward, and Jordan this book will strike a perfect cord. The action is fast past in all the right parts, while slowing down at some places to allow the depth of the events which just happened to sink in. Azinger's miraculous use of pacing and tone are in full display in this book and it shines because of them.
The story of Liandra especially fleshes out in this novel. Torn between emotion and duty her character deepens and anneals into something completely new and amazing. I must say that although she has long been my favorite character she definitely came into her own this time. 

The other stories are just as rich and rewarding, from the darkly sinister Lord Raven's march towards Laverness and Pellanor to the Priestess's seductive personality. Each is peppered with surprises and plot twists so shocking that I often found myself rereading passages to make sure I was right in what I thought was going on. Hints of foreshadowing also are woven into the story so numerously that I doubt any reader could ever catch them all on a first try. One detail especially sticks in my mind as one of the best hidden bits of foreshadowing I've read to date. 

In totality if you've already begun down the path of the Silk and Steel Saga prepare yourself for a return to Erdhe which, while darker than any of the preceding books, most definitely deserves its place in the series. If your new to the series stop reading this moment and go buy the first book, it is most certainly a series which gets better with every book and is well worth the investment. 

As Erdhe girds for war readers wait in anticipation for The Battle Immortal.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16141427-the-poison-priestess

Sequels, by Jessica P. Morrell

Scenes are the bricks or building blocks of fiction. They’re based on conflict and change. Each scene moves the story forward (or sometimes backward). They happen in real time, blow-by-blow, often sizzle with excitement and contain twists and surprises, and readers lean in close, wondering how each scene will resolve.

Sequels are the transitions that happen after the scenes. Sequels are focused on the aftermath and ramifications of a scene. When especially intense scenes happen, especially if a scene ends in disaster, setback, or failure, characters need a chance to sort through their emotions and thoughts. Often what comes first in a sequel is the POV character’s raw feelings like anger or despair. As in real life, once the character calms down, he or she is able to more objectively understand what has happened. From this understanding the character reaches a decision or new goal.  Sequels are important for shaping characters and motivations. Thus the structure for sequels are emotion, ruminating, decision or goal.

For example, a couple who just started dating go out for dinner, drink more than they planned to and end up in bed together. Or perhaps they confess too much, reveal too much.  What takes place during the dinner or in the bedroom is unplanned and a game changer. The next day comes tough realizations and decisions. Does one of them back off the relationship? Is one scared by the depths of his/her feelings? Do they realize that they’ve made a big mistake?  

Or a scene can take place at a funeral. Often while at a funeral  characters might feel numb, or overcome by grief, or are desperately struggling to keep it together.  Afterward, in the sequel a character or characters have an opportunity to sort through their emotions Will they feel regret, relief, or anger? What will these feelings lead to? If someone was murdered this could lead to revenge. If someone died too young, perhaps the mourner wants to take more risks in life so then boldly asserts him or herself. Which then leads to a new scene.

Not every scene needs a sequel, especially near the climax or in fast-paced genres like thrillers. Typically stories that feature a lot of emotional risk such as romances or coming-of-age stories will contain more sequels. While sequels often feature analysis of what just happened, it’s important that it’s just not a rerun of the past events. Somehow the sequel must also be externalized. This means the character cannot sit around weeping or thinking alone in a scene—put the sequel into action. The character can call a friend or start working furiously, struggling to brush away unwanted emotions. It’s also important that sequels don’t go on too long. If you’re story feels too slow, make sure if every sequel is needed or if they can be tightened.

Sequels can also be about the physical impact of the scene—perhaps your character needs to bind a wound or force her breathing and heart rate back to normal. Horror stories use sequels to milk the suspense and fright factor. The character can call a friend or realize she’s in danger and start packing, madly tossing clothes and items into a suitcase. A private investigator can call in for backup and strategizing on taking down the bad guy. 

Without sequels fiction is a series of actions wham bam zipping around. Thus sequels help pacing, space out the action, add pauses in the action. It also helps with the buildup and easing off of tension. Sequels are also a great place to slip in back story via thoughts or flashbacks. Remember too that as in real life, we come to know characters better when they fail and pick themselves up again. This picking up and dusting off occurs in sequels. 

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 Jessica Page Morrell is surrounded by writers. She is the author of  Voices from the Street published by Gray Sunshine, Between the Lines: Master The Subtle Elements Of Fiction Writing published by Writer's Digest Books, and Writing Out the Storm, Collectors Press. Additionally in July 2008 Bullies, Bastards & Bitches: How to Write the Bad Guys in Fiction was published by Writer's Digest Books; Dear Bad Writer, How to Avoid the Rejection Pile was published in 2009 by Tarcher-Penguin.

She is currently hosting the Making It in Changing Times Mini-Conference in Portland on January 26th.

An Expert’s Guide to Character Building Essentials, By Michelle Rebecca

A good writer knows more about her characters--and the world they inhabit--than she ever tells her readers. The more you know about your character--likes, dislikes, habits and history--the better. Character building rounds out your story's main players. 

What's the Point?

The reader may never learn the taxi driver who dies in Chapter 2 has three children, or the talking dormouse who helped your hero traverse the Desert of Failings has an addiction to cauliflower. As such, you may wonder if character building isn’t a waste of time. 

A well-developed character comes across stronger in a story. You understand her motivation, her reasoning, and that understanding seeps into how you describe her. Besides, as you explore your characters they can surprise you, adding elements to your plot and atmosphere you hadn't realized were missing.

Getting the Whole Picture

Take our dormouse as an example. He's a minor character who only shows up for one chapter, but he plays an important role in the hero's journey, teaching the hero to face his fears and feelings. 

How can he do this? Because the dormouse experienced his own failings. He's felt the sinful allure of forbidden cauliflower. He's stolen and lied to obtain the vegetable. And he only recovered because someone cared enough to get him into drug rehab (well, veggie rehab I guess).

You might hint at this in the story. You might decide it requires more explanation or simply use it as part of the story's larger backdrop. Either way, the character seems more real to both you and your reader, because you took the time to develop his history and personality.

The Importance of Backstory

Writers such as J.K. Rowling are masters of character development and backstory. We never learn whether Professor Snape likes his steak rare or well done, but it's a good bet that Rowling knows. Her notes on the world and her characters are, by all accounts, voluminous.

Only a tiny portion of Rowling's character development makes it into her books. She may have map of Hogwarts and a list of every headmaster ever to preside over the school, but readers don’t need that information. Instead, she uses such facts to keep the school--itself as much as character as any wizard--consistent in tone, history and construction.

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Byline: Michelle Rebecca is an aspiring writer with a passion for blogging. She enjoys writing about a vast variety of topics and loves that blogging gives her the opportunity to publicly voice her thoughts and share advice with an unlimited audience. Read her blog at Social We Love.

Taking Steps -- Setting a Story Into Motion, A review of the opening chapter of Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn

by Bill Johnson

Good stories create a journey a story's audience can share. One aspect of creating a journey is taking a first step. When the first chapter of a novel takes that first step, the storytelling demonstrates an ability to create a story journey. Some writers struggle because a first chapter is not a step forward, but an introduction of characters, settings, and plot. I'm going to use several paragraphs from The Last Unicorn to demonstrate how Peter Beagle created a compelling, engaging first step in a story journey.

The title of the novel raises several questions: why is there only one unicorn left? Will it survive? A good title can raise or suggest a dramatic question that draws in readers.

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.
 
This first sentence suggests a story about being all alone in the world, an issue that resonates with many people.

She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.
First the introduction of an issue for the unicorn, then a lyrical physical description. Some hunters pass through the unicorn's forest, and from evesdropping the unicorn learns that she is probably the last of her kind. This sets up in her a state of narrative tension, as she wonders if she is indeed the last unicorn, of if the others were waiting for her?

But when she stopped running at last and stood still, listening to crows and a quarrel of squirrels over her head, she wondered. But suppose they are hiding together, somewhere far away? What if they are hiding and waiting for me? From that first moment of doubt, there was no peace for her; from the time she first imagined leaving her forest, she could not stand in one place without wanting to be somewhere else. She trotted up and down beside her pool, restless and unhappy. Unicorns are not meant to make choices. She said no, and yes, and no again, day and night, and for the first time she began to feel the minutes crawling over her like worms. "I will not go. Because men have seen no unicorns for a while does not mean they have all vanished. Even if it were true, I would not go. I live here." 
 
A character is in a state of narrative tension when he or she feels compelled to act, but with compelling reasons not to act, and acting increases the tension. A novel with a main character who is not in a state of narrative tension risks not being dramatically compelling.

Continuing,

Under the moon, the road that run from the edge of her forest gleamed like water, but when she stepped out onto it away from the trees, she felt how hard it was, and how long. She almost turned back then; but instead sh took a deep breath of the woods air that still drifted to her, and held it in her mouth like a flower, as long as she could.

The unicorn has taken the first step of her journey. She doesn't just make the decision, but takes that step. Many stories have both this physical journey and a journey toward the resolution of an issue of human need, or the illumination and exploration of ideas.

On her journey, the unicorn meets a man who confuses her for a horse.

Sometimes she thought, "If men no longer know what they are looking at, there may well be unicorns in the world yet, unknown and glad of it." But she knew beyond both hope and vanity that men had changed, and world with them, because the unicorns were gone. Yet she went on along the hard road, although each day she wished a little more that she had never left her forest. 

This raises the stakes in the story, that what's happening is not just about a solitary unicorn, but about the larger world; that if this last unicorn is lost, something fundamental about this world will be lost. Some writers struggle because they don't set up something to be at stake in the larger world of their stories.
And, the narrative tension continues to increase for the unicorn.

The unicorn meets a silly butterfly who sings silly songs, but just before leaving, the butterfly reveals to the unicorn, 

"You can find your people if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints. Let nothing dismay you, but don't be half-safe." His wings brushed against the unicorn's skin.

Now the unicorn knows what happened to the other unicorns, but not where to find them. She now has a clue to what happened, but the clue frames larger questions: Where did the Red Bull take the other unicorns, can she find them, can she defeat the Red Bull?

Continuing, a carnival carvan led by Mama Fortuna, a wise woman, happens upon the sleeping unicorn. Knowing what she has found, she has a cage built around the unicorn to trap it. The first chapter ends with the unicorn waking. This sets up a powerful question, will this help or hinder the Unicorn in her quest?
The end of the chapter also suggests that the Magician, who is in conflict with Mama Fortuna, might become an ally of the unicorn.

To get the answer, a reader must turn the page and keep reading.

If Peter Beagle had started with an introduction of the unicorn, an introduction of the old man who mistook her for a horse, an introduction to the butterfly, and Mama Fortuna's carnival, then brought these characters together in the second chapter, that kind of first chapter would have been dramatically static. He choose instead to set the Unicorn on a journey where she meets characters who impact that journey.

The Last Unicorn is a great example of how to introduce and set a story into motion in one chapter.