What I look for in the first page of YA manuscript
The first three chapters of your manuscript are vital for
attracting and holding onto a commissioning editor’s interest. It will
generally only take a reader the first page – even the first few paragraphs –
to make their decision. Creating an opening that forces the editor or publisher
to read on is not only an art but it’s necessary if you want to take the final
steps toward publication. When assessing YA manuscripts, I look for the
following qualities from the first page.
Voice
The number one thing is voice. Is it strong, unique and
distinct? I definitely have a preference for first person or a close third
person POV as this allows the author to create a strong character-focused voice
that is evident from the first line. I also think it’s easier for the reader to
develop a strong sense of empathy for the protagonist or, at the very least, a
sense of intrigue/interest in them when reading first- or close third-person
POV. Examples of YA books with outstanding voice from the very first page
include The Knife and Never Letting Go
Philip Ness and How I live Now Meg
Rosoff.
Plot impact
I like to get a sense of the plot from the very beginning.
I’m not interested in the girl who wakes up, looks at herself in the mirror (so
we can have her describe her long black tendrils and porcelain complexion – in
a self-effacing manner, of course), eats breakfast, chats with
parent/sibling/pet dog, realises she’s late for school, blah blah blah. But I
might be interested if I’m allowed to start reading at the point where she
stumbles late into her classroom only to find her best friend is weirdly
absent/a broodingly handsome new kid is sitting in her seat/everyone is
whispering about what our heroine supposedly got up to at a party on the
weekend, etc. Start at a point of upheaval and conflict – start as close to the
inciting incident as possible.
Not too much (if any) backstory
Backstory can be feed into the story as it goes along and
only where necessary – opening with large slabs of it is dull to read. For
example, if you’re writing an epic fantasy avoid opening with a lengthy history
lesson about your world. All that stuff can be learnt along the way and will
slow down the opening.
Well-structured sentences (lack of errors)
Your skill and writing style should be evident from the
opening page. The fact is I’m making judgements about your abilities as a
writer from those first few paragraphs – how well you craft your sentences, how
imaginative you are at description, how effective your dialogue is at revealing
character and driving the plot forward. If your writing is clumsy it will slow
down my reading and create a block between me (the reader) and my engagement
with the story/characters. Syntax errors can be easily fixed by an editor but
where they inhibit a reader’s understanding and enjoyment of the story, then
you have a problem.
Hopefully not a prologue (sorry!)
I’ve developed a bit of an anti-prologue stance of late so
I’d have to say what I’m not looking
for in a first page is a prologue. Perhaps because I’ve read so many books with
them – more to the point, so many books with unnecessary prologues. Make sure
you interrogate your prologue’s place in your novel before you decide it stays
– what purpose does it serve (that isn’t served elsewhere in the novel)? Is it
really just a place to dump a heap of background information/set-up? Is it too
long (no more than two pages)? How well does it relate to the main thrust of
your story?
Happy writing
