There's a huge difference between excellent pacing as Stephen King... and excellent pacing as Joe Shmo. The distinction I'm trying to make here, has little to do with experience, and more to do with what you've earned in the eyes of your readers. This is also why most agents will tell you not to go over the recommended word count, while established writers can write thousand word bricks.
Agents are all too often your first readers, and they get hundreds of proposals every week. not trying to paint agents in a bad light at all here, but… You should assume, they hate that they have to stink up their trashcan with your hot garbage and they will use any excuse to get it out of their sight. Then afterwards they've got to wash the trashcan out with Lysol wipes. Harsh, I know, but very true. I have watched probably hundreds of hours of talks by various writers. Many of the talks are by Stephen King. I've even read his book, "On Writing--a memoir of the craft". I love the way Stephen King writes, often times slow and deliberate, escalating carefully... until you're deep in horror without realizing how you got there.
Sadly, you and I cannot afford to write like Stephen King. He's earned a special privilege in the writing world... the right to tell his readers, "Wait for it." And the right to tell his agent, “This one’s a thousand pager.” In the beginning, that's not something I grasped, so I wrote my heart out trying to slowly intensify my readers horror. It was good writing, and every step was careful and meaningfully written, it was just not useful writing.
Slow starts are often an important part of emphasizing change in a novel. In the case of Stephen King or Joe Hill this is an intensification of terror, yet I would still advise most beginning authors not to write slowly at the start of their novels. Backwards Writing Advice though it may seem. Without giving the details of my concept, I wrote about a nice, sweet, older woman. She was a bit day dreamy, then little by little I showed her losing her mind. Guess how much agents cared about a novel where the main hook takes place after chapter 5? Nada, zero... because while I may or may not write as well as Stephen King, I haven't earned the right to say, "Wait for it" like he has.
In other words, when you're only allowed to send in 3 chapters, but the hook is in chapter 5, the agent is left with the feeling that you have no hook. That is assuming they get far enough into the chapters to know.
So what's a hook? basically it is the brilliant moment, that push, that sends the main character hurdling off the cliff and into the main concept of the story. The hook should take place, for beginning authors, as early as possible. I'm talking line one if you can.
If you're wasting an agent's time starting your novel by telling them all about your character, their age, their eye and hair color, etc. you'll lose them. The first thing people want to know is usually, "Is there a story here? One I'll really care about?" and if the answer is yes, then your reader may take the time to get to know the main character. Sure... you can introduce a character as they're falling over the edge of the cliff, so long as you know that their falling off the cliff properly and where they go from there, comes first. So, you want an early hook, and you want to have these recurring spikes of adrenaline. Adrenaline does not, by the way, necessarily equate fear. It's excitement that the reader needs--whether you're writing romance, horror, or anything in-between. I'm not trying to say everyone should write 'all thriller, no filler'. I'm just telling you to be very cautious with your filler, and make sure the reader feels a constant need to read the next sentence, the next paragraph, and the next page.
Essentially, write with purpose.
An agent should never feel that they didn't understand where you were going. Reassure them, "Hey we're not lost... see I've got a compass and a map, I know where the roads are. We're totally going somewhere, and by the way, it's going to be awesome." and if you can, tell them, "Hey, actually... we ARE somewhere, right now!"
I hope you enjoyed this blog, and I really hope I'm helping someone out there. #Writing #Agents #BackwardsWritingAdvice #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #novel #novels #book #books #author #writer
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