Make Your First Pages Shine

I know a couple of you saw this post when I accidentally published it on the wrong day last week. Sorry about that! Here it is on the correct day…

The first page of your manuscript is more important than you might imagine. You want the opening paragraphs to shine because, it turns out, if they don’t stand out, often that’s as far as an editor or an agent will read.

If the first page of a project isn’t good, plenty of other projects wait in the stack of submissions. Avoid making the “lousy first page” mistake. You could have created a masterpiece that will never get a full review because the first few pages fall flat.

I heard at a writers’ conference that the average number of pages a reviewer will read before knowing if the project is a ‘no’ is three pages. If the reviewer is still reading after three pages, he or she most likely will read the entire proposal and/or ask for more of the story.

During this same conference, I was part of a panel of editors and agents. We were asked to listen to authors read their first pages and comment on whether we would turn the page to read more.

It’s hard to be put on the spot like that for both the writer and the potential reviewer, but it’s also great for authors to receive that instant feedback on their manuscripts’ beginnings. I have to tell you that most of the time the answer from every person on the panel was, “No, I wouldn’t turn the page.”  We gave reasons for our responses.

To help you to avoid these mistakes in your writing, I’ll share some of the reasons I heard:

“Your first lines didn’t grab my attention.” I know we’ve discussed first lines on the blog before, so I’m not going to go into detail here, but the first line needs to grab the reader’s interest.

“You didn’t start the book in the right place.” This is a common error when the book is brand new to the author–like a first draft. Authors tend not to start the book in the most gripping place on the first try. The story is still formulating in the writer’s mind when he or she starts chapter one.

Sometimes it helps to start your writing with an outline before you even begin a chapter because outlining the manuscript will give you a better idea of where you should start. Sometimes it’s best to launch a novel in the “middle” of the story instead of starting with “introductions.”

Don’t be afraid to revise your story or to try different approaches. You can easily save multiple versions of a book on your computer, so experimenting won’t hurt.

“The first page has too much dialog.” If the reader doesn’t have a clue about what’s happening in the story, a page full of dialog isn’t going to make much sense or encourage the reader to turn the page. Remember that you know your characters, but the reader hasn’t met them yet.

“There’s too much description. I don’t have any idea what’s going on.” If you spend too long describing the scene or the main character, your first page isn’t going to accomplish what it needs to. You usually want to start out with a fast-paced, exciting scene and spend more time describing things later in the story.

“There isn’t a character on the first page.” It’s a good idea to start your story with the introduction of a character who’s experiencing something unusual or exciting. In the case of nonfiction, you could think about starting with a story or introduction that shares something about you as the author or a true story that draws your reader in.

Promote yourself as an expert in the topic you’ve chosen–or as someone who learned the lesson of the book the hard way, by making a mistake. You are, in a way, the character of your book. Or you could start out telling someone else’s story that sets up the problem your book will help to resolve.

The best way to test your first pages is to have a diverse group of people read your first pages and offer feedback. It’s a good idea to find some people from your target audience, but you don’t have to limit it to those readers. Ask 10-ish people to read your chapters and give feedback, and then take the advice that you believe will make for a stronger opening.

Critique groups are a great tool. If you aren’t a part of one, consider joining! You can usually find one in your area by doing a search on the web.