Comments on Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: The Winner Is... (And Thoughts on First Paragraphs...

If I ever use "washed" again, i will be referring ...

2009-10-26T21:34:12.474-07:00

If I ever use "washed" again, i will be referring to my laundry.

Please finish your story Alanna and find someone t...

2009-10-22T17:23:46.169-07:00

Please finish your story Alanna and find someone to publish it...Your writing is inspiring and haunting and I think you've got the talent....

Congratulations, Travis! Nathan - thank you for ...

2009-10-21T17:26:52.091-07:00

Congratulations, Travis!

Nathan - thank you for the honourable mention. I've only recently discovered your blog and this is my first time participating - fantastic entries, thoughts and discussion from everyone. I'm so glad I entered, and that I took the time to read all the comments left (my boss, however, may disagree). Great stuff! The finalists were all outstanding, and I look forward to seeing what they produce in the future.

John @ 4:32: I'm halfway through my second draft. Right between 'maybe I'm a word magician!' and 'at least I can burn it for warmth'.

this contest was fun to be in, and to follow! I a...

2009-10-20T15:46:39.901-07:00

this contest was fun to be in, and to follow! I always try to make my first paragraphs sound as little like a first paragraph as I can. Defnitely no waking up, no mirrors, no gimmicks. Just, you know, here we are. This is the novel, and this is it starting. Why should it be different from the rest?

atlastakeaim; john @4:32 You read the first parag...

2009-10-20T15:28:23.794-07:00

atlastakeaim; john @4:32

You read the first paragraph from my work-in-progress; 21,000 words down, 89,000 to go.

Thanks for your interest in its future and, yes, I promise to finish this, my first novel. I ignored self doubt's e-mail this morning and blocked his addy. I knew he'd be back, but he ain't getting in.

Congratulations to Travis and the runners-up and a...

2009-10-20T11:28:15.952-07:00

Congratulations to Travis and the runners-up and all the others who made this contest not only a wonderful learning experience but an enjoyable literary escapade, as well! And huge thanks to Nathan for making it all possible and allowing us a glimpse into "the agent's mind"--so helpful as we move forward with our project.

In response to those asking about where we are in the writing process. This is our second novel we have written together (yes, we are a writing team of two) and it is in the beginning stages. All the comments have been so encouraging and inspiring that we are extra-jazzed to continue! It is especially great to have this support as we embark on our new venture since our first novel is still unpublished (napping in the shadows of rejections) and it's so exciting just to know people are reading *something* that we wrote, enjoying it and are eager for more. To those of you who wanted to know when you can read more of Adelaide's adventures, and whether that pirate ever gets his ship, feel welcome to click onto our work-in-progress blog for updates.

Cheers, all! And thank you again, Nathan!

Sorry I'm late to the party, Nathan - I'm in the p...

2009-10-20T10:49:34.436-07:00

Sorry I'm late to the party, Nathan - I'm in the process of moving this week - but I just wanted to say "Congratu-freakin'-lations, Travis!"

Congrats to Travis and all the finalists! And than...

2009-10-20T10:48:20.870-07:00

Congrats to Travis and all the finalists! And thank you, Nathan, for an informative and inspiring contest.

:D This blog always makes me smile. Thanks for th...

2009-10-20T10:15:14.187-07:00

:D

This blog always makes me smile. Thanks for the contest and wonderful resource of first paragraphs to learn from.
Also, thanks guys for the interesting discussions.

:D

@John 4:32 My honorable mention (Titled Frankenst...

2009-10-20T09:49:32.838-07:00

@John 4:32

My honorable mention (Titled Frankenstein's Little Angel, by the way) is finished but I'm not finished with it. Firstly, it's too short at 27,000 words but I have hopes of being able to extend it to about 50,000 without it sounding like I did. Anyway, thanks for the interest and thanks again to Nathan and everyone for this contest/feedback.

John, My honorable mention is spit shined a...

2009-10-20T08:59:56.487-07:00

John,
My honorable mention is spit shined and ready to go. (as long as I don't look at it, then it's subject to change ;)

Congrats Travis!!! The voice of your character rea...

2009-10-20T08:57:05.379-07:00

Congrats Travis!!! The voice of your character reached out to me way before Nathan named you the winner...

Gordon, my boy, if a writer left a piece of paper white because they couldn't handle a friendly, well-intended competition-I have a feeling that same writer (with or without Nathan's blog)would have left that page blank long before they wrote "The End"

I have learned so much from this stupendously, ultimate blog-and if, by God, I choose to leave my paper white-it's because of my own insecurities that have NOTHING to do with an agent's feedback of my work--I truly feel bad that you failed to learn from this contest---All writers need thick skin...so you best get used to it...

And Nathan...Luv u man!!Thanks for doing this, you're a stupendously, ultimate agent!!! I love this blog so much, I'd pay to read it!! But I hope you keep it free :)

YAYY TRAVIS! you go Guy! whoop whoop whoop! What...

2009-10-20T08:49:18.036-07:00

YAYY TRAVIS! you go Guy! whoop whoop whoop!

What fun this was - thank you!

Oh yay! I feel so proud that I picked the winner!...

2009-10-20T08:29:58.665-07:00

Oh yay! I feel so proud that I picked the winner!!!!! Way to go Travis!

Congratulations, Travis! Well done. I voted for Ma...

2009-10-20T08:24:21.875-07:00

Congratulations, Travis! Well done. I voted for Maya but had three "winners" in mind and one was you. It was a tough decision. : )
Congratulations to all of the finalists, and thanks to Nathan for doing this. As always, it was so much fun. Looking forward to the next one.

This was heaps o' fun! Thanks for another great co...

2009-10-20T08:19:10.154-07:00

This was heaps o' fun! Thanks for another great contest, Nathan!

Mira: I relate. Sigh, move on, sigh. Donuts.

Gordon: huh.

Travis: Good onya!

Thank you for taking the time to hold this contest...

2009-10-20T08:15:34.729-07:00

Thank you for taking the time to hold this contest! It's fascinating to see the thought processes behind your decisions. The finalists and winner put up some fantastic openings, and I'm glad I got to participate alongside them!

Gordon, Thank you, but I'm afraid I'll have to pa...

2009-10-20T07:11:31.878-07:00

Gordon,

Thank you, but I'm afraid I'll have to pass, however I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

John,

My honorable mention is complete but not done, since I'm an edit fiend. It's also not my first novel. It was a tough choice between entering the urban fantasy intro or a contemporary about a teenage girl coping with prison life, but I went with the UF because of the "verily" use as I'd hoped the writing style plus the subject matter would make it stand out.

I'm going to utilize Rick Daley's really cool query site http://openquery.blogspot.com/ before I send a query out on the UF, though I've got a couple other manuscripts out on partial submission.

TRAVIS! Congrats again dude! Love the fish pic!

Congrats, Travis! After viewing the finalists, I ...

2009-10-20T06:22:40.159-07:00

Congrats, Travis!

After viewing the finalists, I can definitely see why my paragraph didn't win :) It's not that my paragraph is bad (at least I don't think so), and didn't use any of those common tropes Nathan mentioned, but the paragraph just didn't stand out...especially when compared to the FANTASTIC entries that made the final list and honorable mention list.

Congrats everyone!

Thanks again for the contest, Nathan, and an even ...

2009-10-20T06:00:44.045-07:00

Thanks again for the contest, Nathan, and an even bigger thanks for the detailed explanation behind your selections. Lots to learn from.

And huge congrats to Travis, who I voted for. Out of all of them (each reaching a level of accomplishment in their own right) I felt his was well-edited and did the job without overwriting. There was a genuine quality to his writing that made me feel as though it really was plucked from a book he was working on. I also got the sense that he wrote with the reader in mind.

Again, and I hope this doesn't come off harsh, most of the paragraphs were so densely crafted that "I wasn't able to lose myself in the paragraph and forget the hand of the author who was writing it." I was exhausted by a few, and felt an entire book of overly dense prose would wear me out before long.

But congrats to all the finalists, and well done, Travis.

And I've just worked out why!....it's subliminal m...

2009-10-20T03:43:48.533-07:00

And I've just worked out why!....it's subliminal messaging and I know for a fact Nathan's office looks out over a Mcdonald's placed on the shore of a small pond

Think about it!

Did no one else notice that 9 out of 10 finalists ...

2009-10-20T03:41:36.970-07:00

Did no one else notice that 9 out of 10 finalists had either an M in their name, a W (an upside down M) or a double nn (basically an M)?????

I'm changing my name to Mirium Waminni

John, My novel is only about 15,000 words done, b...

2009-10-20T01:41:53.327-07:00

John,

My novel is only about 15,000 words done, but because it's historical fiction this comes after a lot of research and probably a novel's worth of note-taking. I'm certain there's more research in my future!

Maya

Word verification: copping, which I suppose is what I'm doing right now... copping to the fact that my novel isn't close to being done yet.

I would have loved a query critique, but it's probably only fair for that to go to people closer to being done!

Congratulations Travis! Though I picked M, it was ...

2009-10-19T23:46:36.878-07:00

Congratulations Travis! Though I picked M, it was a close call and I was going back and forth.

I picked four as the standouts, and they all made in to the five finalists. Woo hoo! If I fail as an author, maybe in my next career I'll be an agent . . .

(just kidding.)

Congratulations to Travis and to all the finalists...

2009-10-19T23:20:43.783-07:00

Congratulations to Travis and to all the finalists!

Great contest, and amazing on Nathan's part to surf through so many entries.