My First 50 Pages Class Returns!

My First 50 Pages class is finally back on the calendar!

I've taught a lot of conferences, and yet I still see students making the same obvious mistakes in their opening pages. Most of these mistakes are avoidable. Unfortunately, agents/editors/judges assume from such mistakes that the author is a newbie or untalented, when in fact the author's story as a whole might be amazing.

At the Las Vegas Writers Conference I was on a panel to critique first pages. We listened to the story being read and raised our hands when we would "stop reading the manuscript" if it had been submitted to us. Well, I raised my hand the most, because it's my job as a book doctor to know what those five agents, and the next five agents, and the next 20 editors want and hate. That's part of my job: to screen and filter out problems that get a manuscript rejected.

The other part of my job is to help you bring out the magic that gets your manuscript read from start to finish! And that's always more fun--to focus on the strong points of a story and the gifts of the storyteller.

Writers work so hard to finish a manuscript, and then they work even harder to get the attention of an editor or agent or even a contest. But the opportunity gets blown because the writer is working in the dark as to what gets their work rejected.

Since I'm exposed to those conversations with agents/editors/contest judges all the time, I've got some insights in this arena. That's why I designed this five-week workshop to polish your sample pages to avoid common pitfalls that get a manuscript thrown into the rejection pile.

Not only will I review your first page, but I'll team you up with other authors (you can opt out of this if you want) so you get feedback along the way. We all need readers to help us see our blind-spots, so the more we support each other in our editing process, the better the results I find.

One of my goals in this workshop is to teach you how to think like an editor. That way you'll write and edit stronger manuscripts in the future.

You'll learn how to make characters, dialogue, and hooks read like a bestseller. You'll also learn tips/tricks to make the rest of your manuscript sparkle, including:

1) First page "Do's and Don'ts"

2) Power hooks that engage

3) World building techniques that bring the story to life

4) Character development seeds to plant early

5) Dialogue that engages and sells itself

6) Critical story elements you must establish by page 50

7) Key "turning points" to keep readers turning the page

8) Scene-writing techniques that improve pacing/tension

9) Genre requirements to meet

10) Layering story/character arcs

Click here for more information and the PayPal registration link: http://editordevil.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_2.html

If you are a former student, feel free to email me directly for a discount rate:
ChristineFairchild AT yahoo DOT com

Cheers to you all!

Your Editor Devil