After Effects

I sat down to start another round of revisions to the third Jack Trader adventure, starting at page one. The problem was that the information I'd learned at the weekend writer's conference was still fresh in my mind. As you may recall from yesterday's blog entry, there was a session at the conference called The First Page Panel. I read and re-read page one then tweaked it a little here and re-wrote a sentence there. I did this over and over. I couldn't get past the first page. I played what the panel had said over and over in my mind. They had been very upfront with us on why they would reject a submission based on the first page, or in many cases the first paragraph or first sentence. This morning was very frustrating. I set it aside and went to work. I'll try again tonight with fresh eyes. I encourage you all to pay special attention to your first page, if you want them to turn to the second page. Then the process continues.