Red Light/Green Light Contest Schedule & Resources For Crafting A Strong Opening

by Adventures in YA Publishing

As you may remember from last week, on June 23rd we will be running another round of our Red Light/Green Light contest, in which participants will be judged on their opening lines. The fabulous Kelly Peterson of Corvisiero Literary is serving as our fearless judge, and the prize she’s offered is a FULL request with general editorial notes. So if you want an agent’s eyes and feedback on your entire MS, this is the contest to enter!

Our full schedule for this round of Red Light/Green Light will be as follows:

June 23rd–Contest opens!

June 30th–50 first round participants announced, first sentences posted here on the AYAP blog

July 7th–25 second round participants announced, first and second sentences posted

July 14th–10 third round participants announced, first pages posted

July 21st–5 fourth round participants announced, 3 paragraph pitches posted

July 28th–Prize winner announced, along with a few words from Kelly on why she chose that entry

As you can see, Red Light/Green Light is scheduled to conveniently end prior to Pitch Wars, so if you’re thinking about entering the Big One 😉 your eligibility for Pitch Wars will NOT be adversely impacted by participating in Red Light/Green Light. In fact, Red Light/Green Light might help you shine up your opening in preparation for Pitch Wars entry!

Other dates to take note of include June 9th, when we will be hosting a live chat with agent Kelly Peterson here on Twitter. It will start at 9pm EST on the contest hashtag #GreenLightWIP. If you have any questions you’d like an agent’s perspective on, this is an excellent opportunity to get them answered. Note: you do NOT need to participate in Red Light/Green Light in order to participate in the live chat.

On June 16th, we’ll hold another live chat with Kelly, this time on Facebook. It will also begin at 9pm EST. Let your writer friends know, and we can’t wait to see your great questions!

To help you prepare for the contest start date on June 23rd, I’ve compiled a list of resources to help you polish up those openings. An opening is the first impression your manuscript makes on the reader, and as such it’s very important to get it right. It’s often the most revised part of a novel–to date, the first chapter of the novel I’m querying has been revised over 25 times! Here are some of my favorite resources for creating an opening that grips your reader from the very first sentence…the list is certainly not exhaustive, but it should give you a great place to start.

AYAP Resources For Crafting A Strong Opening

Inspired Openings Have A Distinct Personality On The Page

Author Lucy Connors discusses how to use the five senses in creating an opening with impact.

How To Hook An Agent: 16 Agents Share What Gets Them Reading
A discussion of what publishing industry professionals find compelling in opening pages.

Jacqueline Green’s Checklist For Novel Openings
A seven part checklist to evaluate if your opening will rope a reader in. According to Jacqueline, if you can hit 3 out of 7, you’re well on your way!

Five Thoughts On Inspired Openings And Five Brilliant Opening Pages
Points to consider while crafting your opening, and examples of books that got it right.

The Dos And Don’ts Of Great Openings
Five things NOT to do with your opening, and one very important thing TO do.

General Resources For Crafting A Strong Opening

How To Start A Novel
Holly Lisle on things you should do before you even draft that first sentence, to lay the groundwork for a solid opening.

7 Ways To Create A Killer Opening Line
Unpacking the format of many famous opening lines: does your opening line follow one of the above formulas?

7 Keys To Write The Perfect First Line
Truth, humor, surprise, voice: all can be conveyed by a well-crafted first line.

How To Write The Perfect First Page
Delivering on the promise of your first line throughout the first page and beyond.

How To Start A Novel: First Lines, First Paragraphs
On the natural segue from a great first line to great first paragraphs, with examples from the pros.

Practical Help For Perfecting First Pages

1st 5 Pages Workshop

If you’ve got your opening pages as shiny as possible on your own, it always helps to have additional feedback on them. That’s why we started the 1st 5 Pages Workshop here at AYAP. It runs monthly, beginning on the first Saturday of each month, and is a great opportunity for you to work together with mentors who’ll help you polish your opening pages until they sparkle. Details can be found here, but be aware that the workshop fills up very quickly.

YayYA Critique Hop

Run semi-annually by Rachel Stevenson, the YayYA critique hop is a fantastic way to get feedback from multiple writers on your opening pages. Space is limited, so watch Rachel’s blog for opening dates. This hop comes highly recommended by yours truly–I’ve met some great writing friends through the YayYA critique hop, and was even introduced to one of my invaluable critique partners through it. Numerous participants from last summer’s hop have gone on to find agents–definitely check this out!

I hope you found something above to help you with your opening chapter revisions. Can’t wait to see those first lines come June 23rd! If you have some favorite writing resources I didn’t mention, feel free to share them in the comments below, and as always…

Happy writing!

Adventures in YA Publishing

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Posted: May 26, 2016

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The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p>
<p>Your main character needs to be:<br />
• Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br />
• Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br />
• Active enough to drive the story<br />
• Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p>
<p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />

The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p>
<p>But your theme needs to be:<br />
• Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br />
• Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br />
• Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br />
• Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p>
<p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />

The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p>
<p>In general, your plot should:<br />
• Hook readers fast<br />
• Build tension that a child can follow<br />
• Create page turns that feel natural<br />
• Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p>
<p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.

The Arms of your story are the side characters.

The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p>
<p>Your setting should:<br />
• Make your character's world feel real<br />
• Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br />
• Connect different scenes and moments organically<br />
• Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p>
<p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black.

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