Re: Does this First Page Work?

On Jan 26, 5:35 pm, elanders <eland...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
ShellyS wrote:
On Jan 26, 1:45 pm, elanders <eland...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
ShellyS wrote:

(snipped a lot of stuff I should've snipped before)

Just because someone claims there are rules doesn't mean there are
rules. Really. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many writing advice
books with contradictory rules (another personal source of frustration
20 years ago), nor would there be more exceptions published than would
follow the silly "exception to the rule" rule. Sheesh.

And that lovely little rule you reference doesn't say how to do that.
It can be done with wonderful prose that says little. It can be
anything that keeps someone reading. My favorite opening is from a
military SF book, Armor by John Steakley. The first paragraph:

He drank alone.

The rest of the page, scene, chapter, and ultimately, the book,
explained why. I kept reading because I wanted to know why. And
everything else that followed.

--Shelly

The author obviously knows agent readers. She discussed in length the
psychology of an agent reader and in so doing alerted me to things I
hadn't heard before.

And yet, there are plenty of people with that very same experience who
have said differently. Bottom line is that agents and editors and
anyone else passing judgment on your manuscript are individuals with
their own personal, subjective tastes. What will work for one won't
necessarily work for another. You write the best book you can and hope
for the best. You keep sending out the ms until it finds its way to
the desk of the right person for it, and then you have to hope he or
she is in the right mood for it.

You would do well to read more extensively in this area, get the
advice of many people, and make your own decisions, rather than take
the word of one woman as gospel. Been there, done that, finally
recovered from it. But I don't expect you to take my advice. You're
too busy dishing out your own advice and rules and "facts" to absorb
what anyone here has bothered to explain to you.

I think Alma nailed it. Troll. And yet, I'm often amused enough by
trolls who show at least some intelligence to continue to play.

--Shelly

Basically, writing for an agent reader vs the buying public are not the
same thing, at least in her opinion. Books like Dicken's "Tale of Two
Cities" or Tolstoy's  "War and Peace" wouldn't get published in today's
market.

If your story ain't cooking by page one, it ain't going anywhere, except
maybe back to you.

This, in my opinion, means the plot has to take off immediately -- no
more than a paragraph of set-up and wham! You're right into the first
conflict then spinning out into the dramatic arc by the end of the page.

Look, an agent reader who goes through 50 manuscripts a day just doesn't
have the time to read the first four pages of each. It's got to be there
on the first page or you're wasting her time.

EG

--
Riclanders Dot Comhttp://riclanders.com/

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