Wow.
I would like to express my profound amazement and appreciation for the awesome responses to our first Are You Hooked. I'm seriously blown away. That you would take so much time, give so much thought, express yourselves so professionally, so kindly, in so helpful a manner, is remarkable.
I wish I would have submitted a page!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I sincerely hope that those of you who submitted your pages have been blessed, encouraged, spurred on, helped in any small way by these honest but gentle responses.
And so for our Friday Fricassee this week:
I count this first Are You Hooked a success. Do you? What would you like to see handled differently the next time?
What other "group efforts" would you like to see here? Queries? Blurbs? More first pages? Something I haven't thought of?
For those of you who submitted pages: Was this a good experience? Do you feel like your writing will be affected positively for your having participated here? Does the sting of a "no" or two feel too yucky right now to move past, or does it feel like a nudge toward more honing, more pruning, more hard work toward your heartfelt goals?
Share! I'm all ears (eyes).
And have a glorious weekend.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for this opportunity. This was helpful for me. After receiving feedback, I see my first page could use a bit of tweaking before sending it back out to agents/editors.
ReplyDeleteI would participate again in a first page or a query "group effort."
I thought this was a lot of fun. I like to see how other writers open their stories, and when they are all in one place, it's both easy and enjoyable to read.
ReplyDeleteI wrote the Aunt Nordia/ inheritance first page for a middle grade story, and a critique group just convinced me that the opening should move from the second person to the first, like "...a camera coming into focus." I didn't like it, and it seemed like no one else did, so that helped me learn to trust my instincts a little more.
So, yes, this was a positive experience for me.
Thank you very much, Authoress, for setting up this opportunity to get some feedback from fresh eyes. I tweaked my opening, hopefully losing some of the confusion. Again, thanks to everyone who participated.
ReplyDeleteHuge thanks to everyone who left me feedback (mine was the first one, about the girl living in a senior's complex.)and to you, Authoress, for making it happen!
ReplyDeleteThis was a huge help for me, mainly because voice is something that I s-t-r-u-g-g-l-e with, and I had tried something very experimental with this book, so it was good to know that people seemed to be pulled in by it. It also showed me that my first line hook needs fixing seeing as I don't immediately explain whi the MC does make the choice to skip. I think instead a better hook would be living in the senior's home, because I elaborate immediately on it. While it isn't the main action like the skipping class, it is probably an interesting enough factoid to pull a reader in. Maybe. I hope, lol.
All the first pages were fun to read, and all of them had something that pulled at my interest, even if the hook still needed a touch of work.
I'd like to see this again down the road. I think this would work well on queries, scenes, dialogue segments, examples of emotions (showing an angry scene, a fearful one, etc.) Lots of possibilities.
Yesterday I was in class all day and totally forgot, but I when I got it I totally loved it.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see a query and would most assuredly do another first page.
I'm used to getting critiqued so no the no's weren't so bad to take. I need to tighten it up.
Thanks everyone and I'd love to do this again.
I did number 14 on first pages and thought it was a nice experience - I expected more no's than I got, which is always good!
ReplyDeleteI like that everyone is thoughtful and well-mannered. I also like the option of going anonymous, as you can be very honest without hurting anyone's feelings.
I'd love to see a query/synopsis version of this.
It was a lot of fun. I'd vote it a huge success. Thanks for hosting this, Authoress! :D
ReplyDeleteI had submissions #12 & #16 and the feedback was excellent! :) Thanks, everyone. (I'm one of the weirdos who loves harsh crits, ;) so none of the "no"s were at all off-putting; I appreciated knowing why you liked or disliked something, and the consensus on #12 is AWESOME. Shows me exactly where to work on revising.)
I would definitely like to see another first page, as well as queries and blurbs.
Oh, and I liked Angela's idea of various kind of scenes (DL, emotion, maybe action?), etc. That'd be fun!
~Merc
Thanks for hosting a first page, are you hooked post and thanks to all for feedback. My posts were 10 and 11. YA and Sci Fi Rom. Lot's of great feedback.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see another first page. Other scenes could be fun as well as query or synopsis. Great turnout.
Dawn
I really loved it, and would love to take part in more. It's helping me as a writer, to improve and learn what people like.
ReplyDeleteYunaleska
I'm late chiming in, but yes, this was awesome, authoress! I got a lot out of these first pages, both as a viewer and a submitter. 8^) I've tightened up my first page, thanks to the feedback, so hopefully this will make a difference to how agents view the start of my book. I'll be using the new first page in the requested fulls I'll be sending out later this week. Thanks so much to those who commented on my page! 8^)
ReplyDeleteKaren -- that's AWESOME! Well worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping for the VERY BEST for you!