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I have covered figuring out your Concept and Premise of your novel (scroll down and find it on my blog). That is step one.

I take it for granted you know your genre.

Your first scene in your first chapter should set up the precipating event.

in my novel Gunny Mac Private Detective Trouble in Cleveland,

Alan Burke dialed the phone while simultaneously trying to light his cigarette. It didn’t go well. The phone slipped out of his hand as he flailed around and tried to catch it. He heard the familiar voice on the other line.

“Mac Detective Agency, may I help you?”

He finally retrieved the phone. “Yeh, this is Burke. Is Mac around?”

“Hi, Alan, good to hear from you. I’ll transfer you.”

Burke drew deep on his cigarette as he watched the comings and goings from the bottom floor of the Terminal Tower, one of Cleveland’s landmarks.

“Mac here; what’s going on, Alan?”

“I need you and the boys down here to assist me. They just blew up one of Burke Enterprises' factories; ten people dead, and the factory was half-destroyed. It’ll be out of business for at least a month. Critical lumber our military needs, and runway matting.”

“How do you know someone blew up the factory?”

“Dynamite residue and the type of explosion. The city safety director asked for help from the FBI, and they brought in a forensic specialist. They would have killed my father if the explosion had been three minutes sooner.”

“Do they think it was Nazi saboteurs?” 

“Don’t know what the hell happened, Mac. My father would like to employ our detective agency to figure out what happened. He lost some friends in that explosion.”

“How is the Padre doing?” asked Mac.

“He’s been busy with that monastery. He’s ensuring we have our Cleveland headquarters ready to move in.”

“Look, I’ll bring Wojo and Detectives Peterson and Reynolds.” Mac paused for a few seconds while quickly going over several scenarios.  “On second thought, I’ll bring most of the boys down. Tell your dad not to worry and to be careful. I’ll have Reynolds watch over him when we get there. I’ll see you in a few days.”

In this short scene here is what we have told the reader:

1. A factory has been blown up.

2, A war is going on.

3. We have identified our protagonists.

4. Our location Cleveland.

5. We have identified a possible culprit the Nazi.

6. The Mac Detective Agency is going to investigate.

The scene has been set. Not alot of words or explanation...just the facts ma'm.

Next we will work on what happens in the rest of the chapter.