At the Wrong Time At the Darley Anderson Agency we ask that any writers who wish to submit their work to us should provide the first three chapters of their novel as a sample of their writing. This is, as I understand it, standard practice in the industry. However, at least once a week I…
Tag: narrative technique
11 Ways Not To Start Your Novel – No. 5
By Summarising A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (May 25th 1977 and this one, to be precise) George Lucas used a (by no means new) technique called an opening crawl at the start of a little space movie he’d been working on. In this opening crawl he summarised all the basic…
11 Ways Not To Start Your Novel – No. 4
With Onomatopoeia EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOW KER-SPLAT! I’m really sorry to have to tell you but that is the sound of a literary agent’s expectations plummeting at the sight of onomatopoeia in the first few lines of your novel. Especially if it’s written in capitals, as they so often are. This is not to say you cannot describe…
11 Ways Not To Start Your Novel – No. 3
With a Description of the Moon Quick! Pick a card, any card. Now think of a number between 1 and 10. Next think of a colour. And a vegetable. Got them all? OK? Carrot, red, 7 and either the Ace of Spades or the Queen of Hearts, failing that something with a 3 or a…
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