We all know how important your first page is. We spend more time on that one page than any other part of our story. Often we edit and critique those first four chapters until they sound absolutely fantastic. But the thing is, we have to put as much effort as we did in that one page into the rest of our three hundred pages. Our story is often not as polished toward the end as it is in the beginning. Sure you drew your readers in with your first thirty pages, but if the writing for the rest of your story doesn't match up with the skill level at the beginning, it's a major turn off for readers.
And we don't want that to happen
I'm speaking from experience. I've spent so much time sending my first chapters in for critiques and editing it on my own so much, that now as I'm editing the rest of the story, I just want to burry my head in my hands. The middle was where scenes had no life, and they were short. Toward the end the scenes were more exciting, yet it's where I find the most grammer mistakes. Most of them just have to do with dialogue tags at least.
I prefer to write my stories from the top of my head, and that's perfectly fine, but something I am realizing while editing is that it's beneficial to read through your whole story and make an outline of what happens as you do so. This has helped me take out tons of unneccesary scenes, and it helps me tighten up the plot. It gives me a good over view of my story, and I can see what needs to be added.
Don't just polish your first few pages. You can't only polish one small piece of a diamond, you have to make the whole gem shine.
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A Need to Write
Non-FictionA collection of writing tips, some of which I have discovered myself, or others that I have learned from Agents, Published Authors, Writers, Editors, and Publishers. Feel free to comment your writing questions! I'd love to do my best to answer them...
