Today I’m wrapping up my series of the 2010 Florida SCBWI Mid-Year Workshop highlights.
For those of you who attend conferences, you might already know about First Page sessions. It’s where agents, editors, and authors read the first 250 words of anonymous manuscripts and then give their immediate reactions. This has become one of my favorite sessions because I always learn something that I can apply to my own work.
The following are responses and suggestions to First Pages from senior editor Alvina Ling (Little, Brown), Editorial Director Stephanie Owens Lurie (Disney-Hyperion), editor Brian Farrey (Flux), author Kathleen Duey and author Danielle Joseph.
Things that didn’t work in the First Page:
- Passive starts with weather, setting, or character waking up.
- Overly written paragraphs with too much narration.
- Characters too precocious or too clever.
- Flat character voice with no personality.
- Too many characters introduced at once.
- Characters that were too similar.
- No conflict.
- Too many adverbs.
- Too much backstory.
- Laundry-list descriptions. No need to “info-dump” all at once.
- Too melodramatic. Action doesn’t necessarily mean explosions or death in opening scene.
Things that did work in the First Page:
- Starting with a scene and showing character in action.
- Good establishment of character within a setting.
- Using specific details.
- Sharp first sentence to pique interest to read more.
- Getting into the character’s head and making the reader care or empathize.
- Showing the story problem or hint of first obstacle.
- Showing organic conflict without forced melodrama.
- Intriguing character voice with unique characteristics and style.
- Giving the reader credit by not over-explaining the novel world/setting.
These were only just a few of the reactions. The first page of your novel is the most important page that you may write. It’s the selling point for the reader to decide if they should invest time and money in your book.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed the posts this week. I had a really great time at the conference. I highly recommend Florida SCBWI conferences — they are top notch and well worth the trip.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Get some writing done!
Thanks for sharing. Great advice! Just so hard to do well!
These are great! Thanks for sharing. They’re written plainly. I like that. “;-)
Great summary, Karen! It was awesome to meet you, and I hope to see you at another conference soon! :)
Thank you for sharing this. I think writing the right first page is so much more difficult than writing the right query. And this is very helpful.
Great tips – always good to keep in mind.
I’m glad that everyone find those tips helpful. Definitely helpful for me.
Larissa: It was great meeting you to at the conference. I hope that we meet again. I’m already reserving space in my calendar for next year! :)
Great information for the newbie writer. Thanks.