NaNo Update–Word count-wise, I’m ahead.  Yay.  Chapter-wise, I’m one behind.  I’ll have to write two today in order to be completely caught up.  I wrote three yesterday in order to get the one behind and spread my typing over two days.  Oi.  On an up note, I’ve had a wrench thrown into my spokes already for this story and it’s a good wrench.  I so didn’t see this twist coming and OMFG I love it!  Also, I’ve added a link to my profile on NaNo if you want to read an excerpt.  Underneath the icon thing to the left.

You should know by now all the things you need to do in order to hook an agent into reading beyond the first five pages.  If you don’t, I’d highly recommend doing some more research.  The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman would be a good start and I haven’t even read it yet.  But sometimes it just might be easier to describe what an agent doesn’t want to see in the first chapter.  Why?  Because what they want to see can be limitless but the list of things that make them cringe is substantially shorter, albeit still rather lengthy.

Writer’s Digest snagged quotes from reputable literary agents (including Kristin Nelson and the agents at the Larson-Pomada Literary Agency) to divulge what makes them twitch and what they really could live without in the first chapter of any book.  Because, really, if the first chapter irks them, they’re probably not going to be inclined to read any more.  Of course, I’m going to tell you what I think on what they think.  You want to read what they think?  Just click the link.  It’s a short article.  I swear.

Prologues

Really, I never understood the purpose of these.  Or epilogues.  if it’s important, shouldn’t it be included somewhere in the story?  If it’s being used as nothing more than an info-dump in order to prepare the reader for the story ahead, aren’t you underestimating your readers just a little bit?  I was always a fan of beginning the story at the beginning, wherever that may be.

I know prologues can come in all sorts of styles, from the tease to the dump to the irrelevant information until you get to page 392 but regardless of what they are, I just don’t get their purpose and why authors would choose to have them.  Take the prologues in the Twilight series books.  They’re nothing more than a snippet tease of what comes later in the book.  Why?  Is it to make sure the reader turns to page one or reads until that little bit makes sense?  I just don’t understand.  Just give me the story, ok?

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