I always love your newsletters and loved the opening pages stuff - lots of good insights, and made me want to send in something but didn't have time to do it right away and then it feels like it's too late. But please keep it coming!
I love the Opening Pages Intensive and everything you are doing! Your newsletter is my favorite among the many that show up in my Inbox! :) Thank you for all you are doing to make the writing world transparent and accessible! xo
I absolutely love it! Esp seeing the other subscriber entries and reading your analysis of what's working / what's not and how a new version might rectify it (then seeing them comment too! Excited for the unpacking of genre fiction pages, I would even say the post could be longer and you could do 1 or 2 more entries (if you had time!).
I am really liking this series! Not only that, but it's been super helpful with actionable tips and things to think about. I just reworked my whole beginning a couple months ago and while I'm satisfied with it, I don't know if it truly works, so this series has been perfect timing for me!
I love the idea! It's been super inspired to read your comments. I was actually editing my opening pages for my current query when you sent the call for pages. Unfortunately I saw it too late and I missed (or barely missed) the window of time to send in pages. That is not you say you would have chosen to feature mine per se, I just wish I'd had a bit more more time, or a blaring 'SEND PAGES NOW' subject headline to snap my attention. :) Keep up the great work!
Courtney, thank you for checking in. The information you're sharing is tremendously valuable and the feedback on subscriber pages is eye-opening. For me, it was also a bit paralyzing. I have reworked my memoir to death and am finally at the point where I'm trying it as a novel. What I'm discovering in the process, though, is that writing no longer feels fun. When I initially read your feedback on the subscriber pages, I felt deflated because I perceived my work to be far from successfully establishing setting. However, when I re-read your feedback today, I was in a better place with my writing and found myself much more receptive. All this to say: your lesson caused me to confront something uncomfortable about myself and my work and I needed time to process that. Maybe I'm alone in this, but decided to share just in case others felt similarly. By no means should you change what you're doing — growth is painful, and that's what you're helping us do!
Thank you so much for sharing this Nicole. I will say, if there is one thing that I have learned it is that the "not fun" alarm is an important indicator that something is off in your work. No matter what you are working on (even if it's difficult material) I do think that the writing should feel mostly good, mostly positive and empowering and meaningful and vivifying. If that isn't there most days, then, honestly, you might be working too hard at it, possibly missing the essential thing that got you writing that piece of work in the first place. Sometimes going back to the first draft and seeing where the magic was-- and then tracking where you started to deprive the piece of magic-- all of this can be helpful. Thanks for being a subscriber!
I love this series! Please keep doing it! I'm not a big commenter in general, but for these in particular I wasn't sure how to participate. Usually you have a call to comment about a specific thing, and iirc there hasn't been an ask in the emails in the series. I simply wasn't sure how to contribute best — I guess a specific invitation makes me more likely to comment. (Here I am! I almost emailed my reply but you asked us to leave feedback in the comments!)
That's a great point Jasmine, especially because some of those posts concerned other writers' work. I'll make the feedback suggestions clearer in the future!
LOVE the first pages intensive, please don’t stop! I’m finding it really helpful as take another look at my novel’s opening in preparation for querying.
Hi Courtney, I am loving the intensive — it's so helpful and big-hearted and I really appreciate all of your thoughtful advice. Thank you for all that you do!
Hi! I'm all set with my opening pages, but it doesn't hurt to review things! I would like to request, though, that instead of putting in pictures of text, could you please copy and paste the text from other writers into your newsletter? I find it's incredibly difficult to read on my phone or listen to on audio with pictures of text because it's much smaller and doesn't expand plus the audio skips reading the pictures.
I totally get that. The reason I do that though is to avoid hitting the Substack word count maximum so when I have multiple excerpts to comment on, screenshots is the only way to do that, unfortunately!
Hi Courtney, do not despair! Your recent posts have been awesome and useful, just what I needed actually. First pages, synopses, and queries are particularly tricky for me, and you excel at all three. I never thought to comment praise though, shame on me,! Keep up the great work!
I always love your newsletters and loved the opening pages stuff - lots of good insights, and made me want to send in something but didn't have time to do it right away and then it feels like it's too late. But please keep it coming!
I love the Opening Pages Intensive and everything you are doing! Your newsletter is my favorite among the many that show up in my Inbox! :) Thank you for all you are doing to make the writing world transparent and accessible! xo
I absolutely love it! Esp seeing the other subscriber entries and reading your analysis of what's working / what's not and how a new version might rectify it (then seeing them comment too! Excited for the unpacking of genre fiction pages, I would even say the post could be longer and you could do 1 or 2 more entries (if you had time!).
I can't because Substack has a word count! Thanks for your kind words.
I love this series (and the concept of a series!)
Your insight is gold! I just joined, so I am HERE for it!
I am really liking this series! Not only that, but it's been super helpful with actionable tips and things to think about. I just reworked my whole beginning a couple months ago and while I'm satisfied with it, I don't know if it truly works, so this series has been perfect timing for me!
I'm so glad to hear that!
Thanks! I definitely sent it in. I think I was a day late though. :)
I love the idea! It's been super inspired to read your comments. I was actually editing my opening pages for my current query when you sent the call for pages. Unfortunately I saw it too late and I missed (or barely missed) the window of time to send in pages. That is not you say you would have chosen to feature mine per se, I just wish I'd had a bit more more time, or a blaring 'SEND PAGES NOW' subject headline to snap my attention. :) Keep up the great work!
There will be other open calls! You can go ahead and send them-- I'm saving them all of course and will revisit some of the submissions in the future.
Courtney, thank you for checking in. The information you're sharing is tremendously valuable and the feedback on subscriber pages is eye-opening. For me, it was also a bit paralyzing. I have reworked my memoir to death and am finally at the point where I'm trying it as a novel. What I'm discovering in the process, though, is that writing no longer feels fun. When I initially read your feedback on the subscriber pages, I felt deflated because I perceived my work to be far from successfully establishing setting. However, when I re-read your feedback today, I was in a better place with my writing and found myself much more receptive. All this to say: your lesson caused me to confront something uncomfortable about myself and my work and I needed time to process that. Maybe I'm alone in this, but decided to share just in case others felt similarly. By no means should you change what you're doing — growth is painful, and that's what you're helping us do!
Thank you so much for sharing this Nicole. I will say, if there is one thing that I have learned it is that the "not fun" alarm is an important indicator that something is off in your work. No matter what you are working on (even if it's difficult material) I do think that the writing should feel mostly good, mostly positive and empowering and meaningful and vivifying. If that isn't there most days, then, honestly, you might be working too hard at it, possibly missing the essential thing that got you writing that piece of work in the first place. Sometimes going back to the first draft and seeing where the magic was-- and then tracking where you started to deprive the piece of magic-- all of this can be helpful. Thanks for being a subscriber!
I love this series! Please keep doing it! I'm not a big commenter in general, but for these in particular I wasn't sure how to participate. Usually you have a call to comment about a specific thing, and iirc there hasn't been an ask in the emails in the series. I simply wasn't sure how to contribute best — I guess a specific invitation makes me more likely to comment. (Here I am! I almost emailed my reply but you asked us to leave feedback in the comments!)
That's a great point Jasmine, especially because some of those posts concerned other writers' work. I'll make the feedback suggestions clearer in the future!
LOVE the first pages intensive, please don’t stop! I’m finding it really helpful as take another look at my novel’s opening in preparation for querying.
Won't stop, can't stop!
Hi Courtney, I am loving the intensive — it's so helpful and big-hearted and I really appreciate all of your thoughtful advice. Thank you for all that you do!
Thanks for being a subscriber!
It might just be a setting I have or something, but I'm not sure I got that email. I can see it now though
Hi! I'm all set with my opening pages, but it doesn't hurt to review things! I would like to request, though, that instead of putting in pictures of text, could you please copy and paste the text from other writers into your newsletter? I find it's incredibly difficult to read on my phone or listen to on audio with pictures of text because it's much smaller and doesn't expand plus the audio skips reading the pictures.
I totally get that. The reason I do that though is to avoid hitting the Substack word count maximum so when I have multiple excerpts to comment on, screenshots is the only way to do that, unfortunately!
Oh, I didn't realize they had a word count limit! Do they allow alt text for images?
Hi Courtney, do not despair! Your recent posts have been awesome and useful, just what I needed actually. First pages, synopses, and queries are particularly tricky for me, and you excel at all three. I never thought to comment praise though, shame on me,! Keep up the great work!
Thank you for these kind words, Angela!
I’m really enjoying it and finding it very useful, especially the nuance addressed in the opening paragraphs of subscriber drafts.