Opening Pages

I have heard from sources about getting published that an agent might stop reading after the first line, and if they get past that, then they need to want to read past the first paragraph, and then the first page or two.  So the opening pages need to dazzle.  They need to hook the reader so that they can't put it down.

This is easier said than done.

I have re-written my opening to CROSSING THE WILDERNESS many times now, and that does not include my discarding of the Prologue entirely.  The problem is finding the right balance between getting right into the action versus giving a sense of who the main characters really are.  Something exciting needs to happen quickly, but if the characters seem one-dimensional, you have not accomplished your task.

Feedback I received at the Backspace Conference regarding my opening fell very much along these lines.  On the first day, the agents felt that the first pages included too many venue changes and brought in the name of a throw-away character needlessly - too confusing for the opening page.  So that night I changed the scene so that the two main characters no longer eat in a cafe before going to the bar (where the action begins), and I cut out the dialogue in which they mention a cute bank teller.

The 2nd day the critique was that the main character was not edgy enough and the dialogue was too boring and inconsequential for the first page.  And as for the dialogue, I realized that I needed to change it so that a strong clue was given that this is an alternate-history United States.  Originally, my prologue provided that context, but the prologue is gone.

So now it's back to work on another rewrite...