Ch 1 Blunders: Starting Too Late

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Don't let readers leave your book behind!
Last month, I received some fantastic feedback on the first quarter of my current MS. For this series of articles, I will draw from the remarks of my wonderful Beta readers and discussions I have had with other writers on these topics.
In some ways, I started some elements of my story too late. Here were three bloopers that I made in the first chapter...

• Main story I started this too slowly. Although the Inciting Incident does not start until the end of the first portion of the book, I should have introduced an important clue or trigger to get that snowball rolling.
• Tangents are the main reason I started too slowly. I started with an arc (okay, maybe a whole subplot) that my main character pursued before fiding that important clue.
• Prologue: Okay, I did not use on in this book -- but I have. Prologues are tricky creatures and should be handled with care.

DISCLAIMER: This was feedback for one MS by one author and should not be taken as all-or-nothing advice for all stories.