Ask Daphne! About First Pages

In a comment on a previous post, Olivia asked:

If a query letter interests you and you go to read the pages, what things about the pages might turn you off to requesting more? (Or what things in the partial/full will prevent you from wanting to go further with the project?) Very wide questions, I know, but having had a request for a full (from someone else- haha) and then that full being ultimately rejected without any sort of feedback, even general things might be helpful as I set about more edits.

When I’m looking at the first couple of pages, I’m usually wary about rookie mistakes — main characters waking up, especially on their birthdays, looking in the mirror to describe themselves, complaining about how ordinary or boring their life is. If you’ve avoided that, I don’t so much as think about things that will get me to say no, as what can you show me to make me say yes.

I want to be immediately interested in your main character, and get a sense of their personality. Or maybe you’re opening with a situation — I want to believe it’s real, and be appropriately terrified/anxious/nostalgic/amorous, etc. I want something different, something that compels me to read on, not the same trite, tired introduction. I want emotion. Humor. Yearning. Heart.

So it’s not about what turns me off, but what turns me on. Hint: not the shoes above. Do.Not.Like. And yet they could have been great with a different heel.

And maybe that’s a metaphor for your opening pages. Ya think?