Episode #47

First Pages Feedback

Writers who are serious about their craft work with Robin to elevate their novels and create the stories readers crave. Let her be your novel whisperer.

Learn how to work with Robin and Readerly Book Coaching at http://readerly.net

Subscribe to the Tea Break Newsletter to get monthly notes to your inbox about books and writing

Terry Northcutt is a Writing Coach and book lover! She coaches fiction and nonfiction. You can find her at https://www.terrynorthcutt.com/

On today’s episode, Terry and I will be giving feedback on first pages submitted by writers. Writers who submit receive their first page back with written notes. Comments on the podcast are not the complete feedback, but give an idea of what to expect when you submit a page.

Below are the elements we will be use for evaluating the first pages:

• Orienting the reader to the time and place

• Introducing the main character and providing a key aspect of the main character relevant to the conflict—a strength or the hint of a flaw

• Giving a sense of an initial problem or conflict or introducing the main problem or conflict

• Hinting at the theme—bonus points!

• Hooking/engaging the reader. Readers generally give a book 1-3 pages before they decide to continue reading. It is super important to hook them early.

• Writing style and language use

First Pages featured:

• YA novel titled Beware the Crossroads by Debbie

• Adult urban fantasy named The Soul Thief by Molly

  Historical women’s fiction called Persimmon Seans by Mary

Writers who are serious about their craft work with Robin to elevate their novels and create the stories readers crave. Let her be your novel whisperer.

Learn how to work with Robin and Readerly Book Coaching at http://readerly.net

Subscribe to the Tea Break Newsletter to get monthly notes to your inbox about books and writing.

Submit Your First Page for a Critique on the Podcast Here.

Terry Northcutt is a Writing Coach and book lover! She coaches fiction and nonfiction. You can find her at https://www.terrynorthcutt.com/

Background

Oil! by Upton Sinclair was first published in 1926 and 27.

Genre: It is a political and social satire, as are several of his other novels.

Setting: Oil! is loosely based on the life of Edward L. Doheny and the company he founded Pan American Petroleum & Transport Company, and the character Eli Watkins, who is an evangelist, is loosely based on the famous evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. The scandal in the book is based on the Teapot Dome scandal, which we talk more about in the show. The book is set during the Warren Harding administration during which oil leases were given to private companies on Navy land without competitive bids.

Additional Notes: There is a movie adaptation starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and it's called There Will Be Blood, but it is only based on the first 150 pages or so of the novel and departs quite clearly from the story that's in the book.

Theme: This book explores economic and social issues (such as capitalism versus socialism vs. communism) and injustice through the eyes of an initially naive character who comes of age as he’s exposed to new ideas and experiences.

Things we thought Sinclair did well as a writer :

• Effective First pages

• • Connects us to the child’s point of view really well, showing things a child would really do, see, and say.

  • It shows us that the son, Bunny, is a “mini-me” who copies his Dad, who is aptly portrayed as following rules, order, and the standards he lives by.

  • Gives a good idea of the Californian setting, shows the main two characters who have a lot of conflict, and driving, ahead of them.

• Good choice of a naive character who doesn’t have assumptions, pays great attention to all the things happening, to all the different viewpoints to figure their ideas out alongside the reader. This is a case in point of using Story to explore social issues and give social commentary well, so as not to sound preachy or message heavy.

• This book is really good at showing how character choices shape the plot and also their arc, especially with Bunny’s, Dad’s, and Paul’s arcs.

• This book is good example of a third person omniscient narrator who kind of flies around and gets in everybody's head, but also has his own voice and way of presenting the story.

Writers who are serious about their craft work with Robin to elevate their novels and create the stories readers crave. Let her be your novel whisperer.

Learn how to work with Robin and Readerly Book Coaching at http://readerly.net

Subscribe to the Tea Break Newsletter to get monthly notes to your inbox about books and writing.

Submit Your First Page for a Critique on the Podcast Here.

Terry

Terry Northcutt is a Writing Coach and book lover! She coaches fiction and nonfiction. You can find her at https://www.terrynorthcutt.com/

an AI thriller. As usual, there is a lot to talk about.