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 where to start. I have had several beginning versions from workshops and comments from others.
Ellen
this is such a great opportunity and very generous of you.
How did people who have taken part in the past protect the copyright of the work they’ve submitted for your review?
You own any work you’ve created without any extra copyrighting. It’s really not something to be worried about, especially not when sharing such a tiny amount of your work.
The hardest part is making everything clear, purposeful and fun to read.
For me, the hardest part is getting everything crammed in. I gotta describe the protagonist. I have to give the reader a sense of the setting. I have to incite the inciting event. I have to generate some kind of action that will hook the reader’s interest. And I have to stay true to the vision of my book. Shew! That’s a lot! 🙂
You’re right, it’s a tall order!
I heartily agree! At the same time, the 250-word limit forced me to think very carefully about what to include. There’s no time to beat around the bush!
The hardest part is creating a hook that pulls readers into the story giving them the urge to continue reading.
The hardest part was looking at the first 250 words and realizing I hadn’t gotten to the point of having the events start at this particular point.
Thank you for this opportunity, Ellen. I agree with the other comments about not knowing which scene to open with; what will appeal to the reader. Hope I picked the right one!
The hardest part for me was on how to introduce the protagonist, by making his presence in the story as powerful as possible. Thank for this opportunity!
The hardest part, initially, was to make sure it wasn’t boring. That includes cutting out unnecessary details and descriptions and trying to find some way for the reader to connect to the character emotionally.
The challenge then becomes avoiding perfectionism.
Thank you so much for all you’re doing Ellen. 🙂
Writing the first page is always the easiest step for me. It’s the rest of the novel that’s hard for me.