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| First Page Rodeo Panelists Margaret, Greg, Eleanor, and George |
The distinguished First Page Rodeo panelists were: Margaret Sutherland Brown, literary
agent; Greg Michalson, Publisher of Unbridled Books; Eleanor Brown, NYT
best-selling author of The Weird Sisters;
and George Hodgman, NYT best-selling author of the memoir Bettyville.
The panel members discussed five “winning” first-pages selected from dozens submitted in advance of the festival. The panel assessed
aesthetics, praised, criticized, and commented candidly on the merits of each of the five entries.
Confession time: One of the five submissions was mine, but thank goodness the authors’ identities weren’t revealed until the end of the discussion.
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| Mary, Dianna, and Donna (me) |
I was grateful
to have some friends with me for moral support. Mary Horner and Dianna Graveman
(pictured on the left) sat next to me, while Sarah Kohnle, one of the festival volunteers, cheered me on
from inside the auditorium.
By the time the panelists got to my submission, my heart was beating rapidly; I gripped a pen in my sweaty palm as I prepared to document their words of wisdom in my notebook.
When the first word out of an expert panelist’s mouth is “Never!” you know you're in for a
rough ride. (The Never! rebuke referred to never submitting a manuscript in single space. Although the FPR submission guidelines called for single-spaced submissions, mine was "singled" out because, in an effort to get as much as I could on my first page, I didn't leave a lot of white space.)
Listening to some other issues pointed out with my first
page, I became discouraged because I should've known better. My spirits lifted a bit and I hung on to positive feedback about my use of time-centered references, nice description, and turns of phrase.
My First Page Rodeo was a humbling, yet
enlightening, experience which I hope to learn from and use to improve my novel.
Here are some FPR lessons learned in the form of Dos and
Don’ts. Note: These applied to at least one of the five submissions, but not all
applied to mine.
Do:
Bring strength and energy to your work, which is something
that can’t be taught
Let the language catch up with emotion
Let the emotional content work its way to the surface
Engage the reader/draw your reader in immediately
Make good use of summary and back story
Answer the question: Why now?
Speed it up!
Know which genre you’re writing in
Develop an engaging voice
Balance your natural strengths
Remember there’s a lot at stake on the first page
Know who your characters are
Let the reader know whose story it is
Be aware of pacing and flow
Create tension
Remember you can only control what is on the page
Write about what you believe in!
Create scenes
Create time-centered references
Begin with the most intriguing aspect right away
Be aware of how your words look on the page
Vary sentence and paragraph lengths
Include nice details and turns of phrase
Take a fresh approach
Create a unique voice
Have an appealing sensibility
Watch syntax and verb tenses
Make dialogue ring true
Avoid using second person
Bring something new
Make the reader want to “get into the boat” with your story
Use a first draft to tell the story to yourself
Start with the thrust of action
Stay in the “now” of the story
Be persistent and courageous
Don’t
Overcook the prose
Push too hard
Create confusion, especially at the beginning
Force the reader to reread to understand
Use too much pedestrian detail, such as "I walked."
Submit in single space
Begin with a year
Start with flashback or a lot of back story
Use too many long paragraphs
Summarize -- scene is better
Have long passages of dialogue
Have too much internalization
Start too early
Every give up!
***
I sincerely appreciated the panelists' forthright and generous comments and suggestions, not only of my own first page, but also of the other submissions.
In all honesty, after listening to the panelists' critiques of my work I thought about giving
up on my novel and sticking to writing non-fiction. But during the drive back to St. Peters I
decided my story is one that needs to be told and I want to tell it.
When I got home I revised my first paragraph and reduced my first page by more than 100 words. To pick up the pace, I varied the paragraph and sentence
lengths, which I hope will interject more energy into my story.
Taking one panelist's advice, I decided to complete my first draft so I know the story myself before I
let anyone else read it.
My larger plan is to restructure my novel to start in the
now and weave the back story in later.
It will be a lot of work, but I’m determined
to stay in the saddle and ride this story till the end.
