Welcome to the fourth annual Novel Boot Camp! I’m so excited to be back for another year of writing tips and workshops!
If you participated last year, welcome back to another year of Boot Camp! If this is your first time participating, thanks for joining us! Novel Boot Camp is a ton of fun and a great opportunity to get free feedback on your novel.
If you don’t know what Novel Boot Camp is, check out the full schedule.
Today I’m opening up the submission form for the first workshop. I will be posting my feedback in two parts: this Friday (August 4) and next Friday (August 11).
Workshop #1: “I stopped reading when…”
Agents, editors, and readers make lightning fast decisions about what they want to read. This workshop is intended to simulate the querying experience for writers who are hoping to traditionally publish. For those planning to self-publish, this workshop helps demonstrate what readers might think of your novel excerpt when deciding if they want to buy your book.
My hope is that the critiques will help you to avoid mistakes that get submissions deleted by agents and that cause readers to put the book down (or click away from the webpage) without buying.
Want to know what to expect from the critiques? Check out last year’s workshop.
The Critiques
Your name and the title of the novel will not be included in your critique. Novels will be identified by genre only.
My feedback will include the text up to the point that I stopped reading along with a few brief comments about why I didn’t continue.
Because this is a free workshop, I cannot predict how many writers will participate. This means that unfortunately I cannot guarantee everyone will have a chance to participate in every workshop. I will critique your submissions until time prohibits me from continuing. Thanks for understanding!
***Please include spaces between paragraphs as no other formatting will be preserved after you submit the form. Thanks!***
Comment Question: What was the hardest part of writing your first page?
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Ellen Brock 
The hardest part is knowing when to quite editing. On the 1000th version.
Hardest part for me is grounding the reader with enough context so it isn’t confusing without info-dumping or starting with too much back story. Thanks for this opportunity and its fun to share the same last name. Go Brocks!
Wooo, go Brocks!
I think the hardest point is knowing where exactly to start the story, that takes us straight into the hook.
For me, the hardest part is making sure the characters aren’t *too familiar* with each other on page one. I have a whole world and relationship set for them in my head that they don’t know about yet! (Thanks for holding the workshops. I’ve got lots to learn.)
I find it hard to find the balance between establishing your main character comfortably within their world and drawing the reader in. So difficult!
The first page needs to be such a finely-balanced piece of work as you introduce the main character, their situation, put them in the action and make the reader want to find out more.
I really appreciate the opportunity for feedback and learning. Thanks again, Ellen.
The workshop has already proved useful. I followed the link to read your comments on last year’s submissions on opening pages and I realised I need to cut out unnecessary detail and diversions. I’ve just changed my opening page !!
Thanks
The most difficult part was where to start the story with the specific objective of drawing the reader in.
The hardest part of writing my first page was learning to let go of my prologue, hook the reader with the first line, while keeping it all concise.
Thank you for the workshop opportunities and for this valuable critique and feedback!
The hardest part of writing the first page was re-writing it after Ellen, in one of her videos, said not to have the character in front of the mirror (I think). When I’d written my first page initially, this is exactly how the book started, with the main character in the mirror reflecting. Writing a new first page came after a bolt of inspiration, which was easier than trying to figure out how to start.