A small promise puts the protagonist in the right place to survive a disaster and leaves them badly equipped for what follows.
After breaking up with Beatrice, Carl has promised to care for her cat, Donut, until she returns. The cat escapes through his open window on a freezing night and will not jump back inside.
Chapter 1 publisher sample: breakup context, cat rescue and the destruction of the buildings; graphic mass-death context.
Carl considers abandoning the problem but goes outside in boxers, a jacket and badly fitting Crocs to retrieve Donut. While he is beside the tree, his apartment building and the surrounding buildings are crushed. Donut jumps into his arms. He survives outside, exposed to the cold with almost no equipment.
The cat's escape and the disaster's timing remain coincidences; the scene makes them character-revealing, not inevitable. Carl's speculation about umbrellas is not a verified rule and is not needed here.
Chapter 1, Carl's promise to look after Donut, her escape and the collapse while he stands outside. ↗
Read Sample text embedded in the publisher page; Chapter 1 opening through the initial dungeon announcement only.
Carl goes after Donut because of an existing obligation, not because he knows a catastrophe is coming. That decision changes his location, his companion and the equipment he has. Survival is a lucky result of a recognizable choice; the cold and missing supplies keep that choice relevant afterward.
Give your protagonist an inconvenient task owed to someone they already know. Interrupt it with the main event. Carry three details forward: where the task put them, who came with them, and what they left behind. Make one missing item matter in the next scene.
Use in my storyExpose a boastful character through an ordinary shared task, then let them become the irritating spectator they were just complaining about.
A recurring argument needs more than another order to behave. Let a character identify the small, specific attraction behind it.
Give a dependent character a credible way to resist someone who controls her home and daily life.