Tag: first chapters

  • One Thing Pre-Querying Authors Can Do Now… Pay It Forward

    At a recent Writing Day Workshop in my home state, during the Q&A with agents, a writer asked, “I’m 6 months out from querying. What’s one piece of advice you could give to someone like me to do right now?” “Great question,” I answered. Most people are likely editing, revising and word-smithing every sentence, especially

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  • Great First Pages, by Najla M.

    Writing a novel that captures a reader’s interest in the first page takes hard work, and may require quite a few revisions. As noted in my blog post, “Great First Chapters,” (linked below), the first chapter should include an engaging opening paragraph, a cool, compelling character, a strong voice, the perfect starting point, the setting/place/decade,

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  • Query Revise & Resubmit Feedback compilation, by Najla M.

    Summarizing a few recent query responses to pass forward to other writers. Individual information will remain anonymous. Below are high level points from 5 submissions: As always, this business is very subjective. Views are my own. This blog post is intended to help provide some suggestions when editing first chapters.

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  • Three Ways to Pull from Within to Be Authentic and Real in Your Writing by Najla M.

    Writers are often told to write what they know, but what does that actually mean? Here are my tips on how to be authentic in your writing. I used pull in the title of this post because that’s what it felt like for me as a new writer to reach inside, yank out my pulsating heart, trudge

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  • Great First Chapters, by Najla M.

    “If you don’t see the book you want on the shelves, write it.” — Beverly Cleary First chapters are daunting. Some people say haunting. Writers agonize over the major elements to include in one chapter (or about 2,500 words) – an engaging opening paragraph, a cool, compelling character, a strong voice, the perfect starting point, the

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