After doing this work for as long as I have, I can sniff the good ones a mile away. It starts with the quality of the writing. I can tell that in the first sentence. Also, does the opening grab me? Even if it’s not technically perfect, do I want to keep reading?
Example:
- “Where’s Janie?” Mom looked up and down the beach, shielding her eyes with her hand as the waves crashed to the shore. “She was here just a second ago.”
- Mom and Janie and Teddy and I were all at the beach. The sun was shining and we were thinking about going into the water.
Which of these openings is better? Example A gives us something to worry about. Example B does not.
It’s really that simple. Experienced agents and editors can usually find out all they need to know from the first page alone. We will keep reading until we know for sure, and that doesn’t take long.
If I encounter a silly spelling mistake or a serious grammatical error on the first page, I am likely to go right to Delete. If you can’t produce a manuscript without mechanical errors, you’re not going to get very far. Check out: “Please read my memoir about pie polar disorder.”
Most manuscripts do not hook me from the start. That’s never a good sign. A good writer can start with a description of a valley or someone’s face and make it interesting and absorbing. But most writers don’t know how to do that. Don’t think you have to start with someone jumping out of an airplane to create tension. It can be any little thing, as long as we want to know more.
The average time I spend on any manuscript is about one minute. If I spent more, I wouldn’t have time for anything else. The good ones tend to jump right off the page, and that’s what I’m looking for.
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