GtLA's Agent's Pet Peeves

JeanneTGC · Aug 16, 2008

Not sure how many subscribe to the Guide to Literary Agents newsletter, but this week they had a great article on agent's pet peeves.

http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Agents+Chapter+1+Pet+Peeves.aspx

MsK · Aug 16, 2008

Thanks Jeanne. That is some good information.

Aglaia · Aug 16, 2008

Great info! Thanks for posting the link! Flowers for you: :e2flowers

Shweta · Aug 16, 2008

Jeanne! Thanks

astonwest · Aug 16, 2008

Good information!!!
I only wish agents could specify these things in their rejections...

Quiet Melody · Aug 16, 2008

thanks for sharing this

Cato · Aug 16, 2008

I'm kind of surprised there was no "alarm clock cliches" listed. Maybe it's just me, but aren't "The alarm clock rang..." phrases pretty common to open a novel?

MoonWriter · Aug 16, 2008

Thanks, Jeanne, that was nice of you to share. Now I have to go back and change the opening of my WIP.

~~It was a dark and stormy night.~~

That dark and stormy night was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

JeanneTGC · Aug 28, 2008

They just came out with more, but no link, so I've copied them here.

From "The Guide to Literary Agents", More Agent Chapter 1 Pet Peeves.
***************

MORE AGENT CHAPTER 1 PET PEEVES
Note: This is part II of the discussion on Chapter 1 no-no's.

The current issue of Writer's Digest magazine (Sept/Oct 08) has a piece in it that I wrote on literary agents' chapter 1 pet peeves. For it, I basically just contacted a whole bunch of agents - new and experienced, fiction and nonfiction, juvenile and adult - and asked them all what they hate to see in chapter 1.

They gave a lot of great feedback - real good practical stuff touching on cliches and pet peeves and overused beginnings. Here is some of the responses that we put in the printed article:

Agents Chapter 1 Pet Peeves:

"Most agents hate prologues. Just make the first chapter relevant and well written."
- Andrea Brown, Andrea Brown Literary Agency

"Slow writing with a lot of description puts me off very quickly. I like a first chapter that moves quickly and draws me in so I'm immediately hooked."
- Andrea Hurst, Andrea Hurst Literary Management

"Avoid any description of the weather."
- Denise Marcil, Denise Marcil Literary Agency

"I don't like it when the main character dies at the end of Chapter 1. Why did I just spend all this time with this character? I feel cheated."
- Cricket Freeman, The August Agency

"A cheesy hook drives me nuts. They say 'Open with a hook!' to grab the reader. That's true, but there's a fine line between an intriguing hook and one that's just silly. An example of a silly hook would be opening with a line of overtly sexual dialogue. Or opening with a hook that's just too convoluted to be truly interesting."
- Daniel Lazar, Writers House

" 'The Weather' is always a problem - the author feels he has to set up the scene and tell us who the characters are, etc. I like starting a story in media res."
- Elizabeth Pomada, Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents

Gillhoughly · Aug 28, 2008

Cato said:
I'm kind of surprised there was no "alarm clock cliches" listed. Maybe it's just me, but aren't "The alarm clock rang..." phrases pretty common to open a novel?

Far too common. It's a writer sub-consciously "waking" to the story. See also Turkey City Lexicon's "white room syndrome."

I recently did some short-story editing and three opened with characters waking to an alarm going off or a doorbell ringing. I asked two of the writers to make changes, explaining the problem. They were cheerful sports about it and did so. The third writer--who had proved himself to be a screaming diva when it came to ANY self-editing--I left alone to sink with his ego. (He won't be invited back, BTW, as one of MY peeves as an editor has to do with not working with screaming divas if I can help it.)

I may have opened a book with my own variation of the "waking" scenario, but will not be repeating the cliche ever again!

White Room Syndrome A clear and common sign of the failure of the author's imagination, most often seen at the beginning of a story, before the setting, background, or characters have gelled. "She awoke in a white room." The 'white room' is a featureless set for which details have yet to be invented -- a failure of invention by the author. The character 'wakes' in order to begin a fresh train of thought -- again, just like the author. This 'white room' opening is generally followed by much earnest pondering of circumstances and useless exposition; all of which can be cut, painlessly. It remains to be seen whether the "white room" cliche' will fade from use now that most authors confront glowing screens rather than blank white paper.

RG570 · Aug 28, 2008

Every one of those responses was so cliché and hackneyed. Like, come on.

Charlie Horse · Aug 28, 2008

"I do in fact hate it when someone wakes up from a dream in Chapter 1, and I dislike an overly long prologue. The worst thing that you can do is let that crucial chapter be boring - that’s the chapter that has to grab my interest!"

My first book did this exactly. Started off with about a five page prologue then the first chapter opened with this terrific dream sequence.

Phaeal · Aug 28, 2008

I've got just a teeny tiny half sentence about the weather in paragraph two. Please cut me some slack.

vfury · Aug 28, 2008

Thanks for posting this! Lots of helpful info to keep in mind.

Shweta · Aug 28, 2008

*thinks about writing her current novel without putting in the weather*
:ROFL:

"Yeah, so people are just randomly dead, sorry, and those houses just fell down; cause I can't mention the blizzard. Oh and they were skating on the canals but it's not like the water's all frozen or anything..."

blacbird · Aug 28, 2008

Most agents seem to have a pet peeve about me sending them anything.

caw

CACTUSWENDY · Aug 28, 2008

That is a neat artical. Thank you so much for posting it.

Double butter on your popcorn?

Thekherham · Aug 28, 2008

I just read it and oh, my, I think I might have to go back to square one... (oops, there's a cliche). I've broken all the rules.

But aren't rules meant to be broken?

Judg · Aug 28, 2008

Thekherham said:
But aren't rules meant to be broken?

Only if the shards make an incredibly beautiful pattern on the floor.

JeanneTGC · Aug 28, 2008

Shweta said:
*thinks about writing her current novel without putting in the weather*

"Yeah, so people are just randomly dead, sorry, and those houses just fell down; cause I can't mention the blizzard. Oh and they were skating on the canals but it's not like the water's all frozen or anything..."

They're talking about opening lines in first chapters, not about avoiding the mention of weather, or sleep, or dreams, etc. And I'd assume if the weather was making things very action-oriented, then it wouldn't be an issue. What I get from this is that if you open your novel with a whole lot of descriptions of the snow and ice and such, they're going to take a pass. If you open it with someone searching desperately for their loved one and they're instantly engaged, then they're not going to pass.

Loriedna · Aug 28, 2008

Oh, I have the description list. No eye color, but height, weight and everything else. It's not right in the beginning but it's there on the second page. Great! Now I need to revise that. Although I could swear that mine is really important for the story and very realistic, not forced at all. Really!
Anyway, thank you for the article. It's very interesting.

bpmann · Aug 28, 2008

But... but... One of my favorite books, "A Wrinkle in Time", starts with "It was a dark and stormy night.". Oh, yeah, I was 7 when that was my favorite book. Never mind.

Melanie Nilles · Aug 28, 2008

What?! No eye-color mention? But...But that's a key to knowing one of my character's isn't really human, the only physical hint you really get until he reveals himself.

Shweta · Aug 28, 2008

JeanneTGC said:
They're talking about opening lines in first chapters, not about avoiding the mention of weather, or sleep, or dreams, etc. And I'd assume if the weather was making things very action-oriented, then it wouldn't be an issue. What I get from this is that if you open your novel with a whole lot of descriptions of the snow and ice and such, they're going to take a pass. If you open it with someone searching desperately for their loved one and they're instantly engaged, then they're not going to pass.

Yeah, I figure what they really mean is, "Don't mention the weather unless it matters, and if it matters, mention it in terms of it mattering".

a_morris · Aug 28, 2008

Terrorists planting bombs is over done? Damn but there are scenes with my terrorists planting bombs which are plot crucial. Mind you I'm writing soft SF....

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