Authors Society discussion

Hi All,

Check out my new article for tips on how to make your first five pages count in order to keep an agent or editor's attention!

(If you have a blog or site dedicated to giving advice and writing tips to aspiring writers, feel free to post my article if you like. Just give me credit! I do these to help aspiring writers so I urge you to past them along for others!)

http://www.articlesbase.com/publishin...

Best Wishes!

http://www.stacy-deanne.net

STACY-DEANNE ... Thanks for some useful advice. I have just finished re-working the first chapter of my new novel, and I'll go over it again with your suggestions in mind ... LEW

One thing most seem to agree upon is that whatever else its value, MFA programs can teach you to write a first page that will get one's attention.Supposedly, that fact alone will keep your submission for ending up in the slush pile with 90% of the others.
That statement gives me pause.Can editors be that busy? That confident that if a work doesn't get them in one page ,it's not worth reading any further?
How many books have you read that may have started slowly(whatever that means) but ended up a classic.
I'm curious what my fellow writers think.

Stacy-Deanne wrote: "Hi All,

Check out my new article for tips on how to make your first five pages count in order to keep an agent or editor's attention!

Doesn't anybody read books back end to? So many authors do just this -- start strong and wimp out about halfway through. I've always read books from both ends (like Nabokov, I hate suspense) and I watch movies this way too. I defer to people with more experience of editors and agents, but... I think they've got it wrong if their purpose is to spot good books (which it isn't) rather than flash celebrity (which it is). Publishing is like the movie business -- if it doesn't go over the top on the first weekend it's a flop. Pardon my contempt.

Joseph wrote: "One thing most seem to agree upon is that whatever else its value, MFA programs can teach you to write a first page that will get one's attention.Supposedly, that fact alone will keep your submissi..."

No, they aren't that busy. That's what they have readers for, like editors (before they were driven out to freelance) did. Agents' time is spent managing the reputations of the earners at the top of their list, methinks.

Charles wrote: "Joseph wrote: "One thing most seem to agree upon is that whatever else its value, MFA programs can teach you to write a first page that will get one's attention.Supposedly, that fact alone will kee..."

In other words, it's not about mastery of art, it's about writing an effective resume, where the paper it's on counts as much as what's in it.

I agree with you Charles. I hate the idea that some kid who has just gotten his MFA, is speed reading a manuscript looking for comma splices or a story that doesn't reflect the limited world of a twenty-something.
I took the academic route through graduate school. We read everything. I remember our reading list for comps: You are responsible for everything ever written.
I hate to burst bubbles, but getting an MFA is no big deal for a talented and dedicated writer; even for those less so.
Fortunately, there are still editor's who are less impressed by their own exaggerated sense of self-worth, than discovering and furthering the careers of gifted"mavericks."
Keep writing.