Hey, wonderful writerly people! It’s time for our monthly first-page critique contest 🙂
This contest is closed. Please try again next month. If you’d like to be notified when the next one goes live, consider subscribing to the blog (in the sidebar).
If you’re working on a first page (in any genre except erotica) and would like some objective feedback, please leave a comment. Any comment :). As long as the email address associated with your WordPress account/comment profile is up-to-date, I’ll be able to contact you if your first page is chosen. Just please know that if I’m unable to get in touch with you through that address, you’ll have to forfeit your win.
Two caveats:
▪ Please be sure your first page (double-spaced in 12-point font) is ready to go so I can critique it before next month’s contest rolls around. If it needs some work and you won’t be able to get it to me right away, let me ask that you plan on entering the next contest, once any necessary tweaking has been taken care of. Resources for common problems writers encounter in their opening pages can be found here.
▪ This contest only runs for 24 hours, start to finish, so get your comment in there!
Three commenters’ names will be randomly drawn and posted tomorrow morning. If you win, you can email me your first page and I’ll offer my feedback.
We run this contest on a monthly basis, so if you’d like to be notified when the next opportunity comes around, consider subscribing to our blog (see the right-hand sidebar).
Best of luck!
PS: If you want to amp up your first page, grab our helpful First Pages checklist from One Stop for Writers. And for more instruction on these important opening elements, see this Mother Lode of First Page Resources.
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.
I love that you have a First Page contest. My first page is ready for you. BTW, your articles are the ones I most often print and keep, either in a notebook (current reading) or files. Thank you for the excellent advice.
Thank you all for entering Becca’s first page critique contest. The lucky winners are…
Catherine Hendrix
Laura Taylor
Anthony Harrison
Huge congrats, everyone! I’ll send you an e-mail soon with details. 🙂
I would love feedback on my work!
Would love to be entered!
I would love a critique!
I would absolutely love to do this!
Thank you for running this contest! I would love feedback on my first page!
Hi Becca! I would so love for you to critique my first page. I’m half way through my second draft and am very excited about how it’s coming together. It’s called The Searing Sands and it’s an adult fantasy. Looking forward to hearing from you!
I’m in!
I would love feedback on my novel’s first page, thank you!
I would love feedback, please!
The more I analyze my first page, the more I realize it needs tearing apart by someone who has training and experience at their side. Please tear my first page apart!
I would appreciate the feedback!
Here’s my entry for your contest. Thank you!
My first page is ready, and I’d LOVE your eyes on it! Thanks for the opportunity.
I’d love to have your professional opinion. Thank you for the opportunity to opt-in.
I’d love feedback!
My first page is ready to blow you away! 😀
Mine is ready!
My 1st page is ready for critique.
Whoop! Entering 😀
Me please
I would love your first-page feedback.
My first page is ready to go.
Arghh! My internet connection blinked out, so I don’t know if my first comment made it out or not. My first page is ready to go and I am eager to share it with you.
“I was like a horse parading around a sale ring.”
I would be so honored!
Eight-year-old Obadiah would love to have you look at his first page.
(RAISES HAND IN BACK) Me, me. Pick me!
My first page is ready to go!
I’d like to enter, please. Thank you for the chance.
I would love to enter as well! 😊
I would like to enter this month’s First Page Contest with my 1st page of my finished manuscript.
I would appreciate an opinion on my first page.
I’d love this!
Good morning, y’all! Hope everyone has a great day. Thanks for the contest.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Diving in once again! Because… why not? 😁
I would love your feedback on my first page!