What I Learned Editing 1st Ten Pages Of #WIP Via Nationwide Writing Conferences

Posted on July 19, 2023 Updated on July 25, 2023

It’s been a real learning lesson being a former faculty member of the Writing Day Workshops. It’s a hub that manages virtual and in-person writing conferences from all over the United States. Because they like to switch things up to provide writers a variety of perspectives, they select editors and agents to be featured in their workshops seasonally. I was privileged to have worked with them part-time from January through May.

In honing my editorial skills, I’ve also recently signed up for an Editing and Publishing Certification through UCLA Extension. I’m excited to be enrolled in their Editorial Management: Acquisitions to Publication course currently. I’m a huge proponent of continued learning and taking our career to the next level. That means we should sometimes say yes to opportunities that arise. I was really honored to work with Writing Day Workshop this past season. I learned a lot about the importance of our first ten pages.

I’ve always known that our first ten pages were important, but it really has hit home just how much so. Our first pages must hook the reader and be able to keep us intrigued throughout. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers in terms of what signifies to the reader that something works and doesn’t work. Personally, I find that our opening pages can be the hardest to write. Some of us require rewriting our opening a few times until we get it right. There are lots of books and articles out there that attempt to make the opening pages into a scientific recipe. Some even try to template it or find a way to turn what is considered good writing into a formula.

In my opinion, there really isn’t a formula for it. No matter how many people claim to make it into one. Yes, you need to hook a reader. Yes, you need to have an inciting incident. Yes, you need to ensure that the pace is moving along. But, there have been lots of books that start off as a slow burn where it’s a normal day in the life of the character and the reader must follow along as the plot points don’t necessarily drive the story. Rather, it’s more of a gradual unraveling. In fact, some readers even complain that if the manuscript opens up too quickly, they don’t know the characters well enough to be invested.

You can’t win. Even if you write award-winning stuff, someone in the galaxy of naysayers will tear apart your pages and file a list of complaints about why they didn’t like your work. It’s true. Subjectivity in the world of publishing can often suck and suck pretty bad. But after reviewing a bunch of first pages from aspiring authors all over the United States, here are some of the basic things I’ve noticed about first pages. The issues are normally not as complex as they seem. Sometimes they’re easy fixes, while others might need a total rewrite in terms of their opening.

Common Issues With Opening Pages

• Purple Prose: In an attempt to begin with a hook, the opening reads forced with bombastic language that reads like purple prose. These overly flowery purple prose are quite easy to spot. This is especially true when the writing style begins to taper off.
• On-The-Nose: Usually, this comes in the form of dialogue when things are told to the reader that is too on-the-nose. It’s too obvious that the writer wants to convey certain information, which can become too evident during a conversation.
• Backstory Info Dump: Some people think backstory info dump is easy to spot, but not always. They can occur very slyly through conversation or through character recollection. As long as it’s not extensive backstory too quickly, then I think some backstory is necessary. It’s just smarter to try and keep to present moments in the first ten pages.
• Way Too Many Characters + Names of Places: This one is much easier to spot than the others. During the first ten pages, when you are introducing a lot of different characters and naming different places as well, it can be a lot for the reader to memorize. I’ve often counted up to fifteen different characters and places, which is way too much. Opening pages should focus on the main character. Hence, we know who the story is about and limit the number of minor characters the reader needs to keep track of.
• Wrong Formatting: Wrong formatting is a major issue I’ve seen in so many manuscripts when I read for these national virtual writing conferences. Some formatting issues can be not outdenting the opening paragraph of every chapter or after a hard break. There are other formatting problems, like using the wrong font. The font should be Times New Roman, and everything should be aligned left and not justified. Everything needs to be double-spaced, which most writers get. I only saw a few turn in single-spaced drafts. The biggest formatting issue I’ve seen is manuscripts that are justified instead of left-aligned, which leaves huge gaps between words. I’ve also seen writers who add two spaces after each sentence when it’s not necessary.
• Repetition: Repetition is another mistake I see. It can be repetitive body action or redundant word usage. Usually, if certain words are being used over and over in the beginning, chances are they will be all throughout the manuscript. Doing a word search can help you detect excessively used words.
• Slice-of-Life: The opening pages are too soon to know whether or not a manuscript reads like a slice-of-life. But, it can often reveal itself in the first three to four chapters. Usually, when something reads like a slice-of-life, it feels like nothing is happening with the character. There isn’t enough at stake. We follow them along in their daily life with not much going on plot-wise. This can be problematic because the reader can stop reading if they don’t feel like enough consequences or circumstances are challenging the main character.
• Prologue: I’m not a prologue fan. I can’t speak on behalf of agents and publishing houses. But I heard it’s not very popular. However, established authors can get away with prologues more readily than those of us who are unknown writers. Prologues tend to be unnecessary and can quickly turn off readers who want to get to the story.

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The Bottom Line

Once again, I’m in the aspiring author category and still hoping to land a book deal. But, in the meantime, it was a great experience working as a freelance editor for Writing Day Workshop, directed by Brian Klems, former columnist and editor of Writer’s Digest. The workshops are currently ongoing nationwide, and many are virtual. I was able to meet some amazing writers via Google Meet or through Zoom. Honing my own editing skills has enabled me to see the value of strengthening my left brain. We often think writing is a right-brain-only thing when it often requires basic knowledge such as proper formatting, reducing redundancy, not introducing too many characters all at once, or trying to fill the reader on excessive backstory too quickly.

Pacing ourselves and knowing how much to divulge and when takes practice. Everyone’s definition of what hooks readers is different. We need more than just one inciting incident, but a few dropped throughout the story. Timing-wise, it’s good to have at least one inciting incident in each act: act one, act two, and act three. Plenty of emotional turmoil and odds must be stacked against the character for the reader to root for them. Some of the basic stuff I’ve seen in terms of mistakes in the first opening pages are relatively fixable. But sometimes, we need to do a rewrite in order to improve our first chapters. Whatever we have to do to improve our draft, we should be willing to make the necessary changes to make our story stronger. Sometimes that might take some of us a few revisions to get there. But that’s okay. It’s often in the revision process that we discover what our story is truly about.

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