Meeting July 14th with Live Readings

For our July 14th Meeting, anyone who would like to do a reading of their First Page is welcome to participate in a live critique session. As usual, we'll meet at the Main Branch St. Pete Library at 6 PM. Networking/mingling begins at 5:30 PM. This meeting is open to the public.

July 14th~ First Page Critique

What to bring: First Page of your novel, short story, or other writing (double-spaced, up to 250 words)
Who can participate: First-come first-serve, members and non-members

What will the critique look like:

• After the author reads their first page, the critique will open up to the audience
• Audience will be encouraged to provide positive feedback and constructive criticism in combination
• Author will not be allowed to talk during the critique (a buzzer will be on hand--if the author talks, they will get buzzed)
• The critique will be timed for each author. At four minutes, the timer will announce that the critique is over and the next author will be allowed to read their First Page

Does everyone have to read?

• No. But the audience will be encouraged to provide feedback, even those who choose not to read their work to the group.

Ask Sam: What about us Word 2003 users?

Last week, I provided instructions for setting up a different first page header in a Word 2007 document. Word 2003 users wanted to know why I left them out. So for y'all, here is how you accomplish the same task in Word 2003.

1. Open your document and select File > Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog appears.
2. Click the Layout Tab.
3. Check "Different first page" and click OK.
4. Click View > Header and Footer. The header at the top of page one of the file (your cover page) is labeled "First Page Header".
5. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Show Next. The cursor moves to the second page header, where the label is "Header."
6. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click the Format Page Number Button.
7. Click the "Start at" radio button and set the value to 0. Click OK.
   

Once you have your header set up the way you want, either click the Close button on the Header and Footer toolbar, or double-click in the body of the document.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

Ask Sam: How do I set up a different first page header in Word 2007?

Fiction writers usually need to have no header at all on the title page, but want a header including a page number starting with 1 on the second and all subsequent pages. Today I'll show you how to do just that.

There are two ways to get to the Header area in Word 2007:

• On the Insert tab, click the Header button and select Edit Header at the bottom of the list that appears
• If the header area of the page is visible, double-click it.

Either way, the cursor is placed in the Header area, which is labeled Header. A new ribbon tab, Design, appears and has focus. To set up your headers, perform these steps:

1. In the Options area in the Design tab, place a check next to Different First Page. The label of the Header area changes to First Page Header. You can insert first-page only header information here if you want, or leave it blank.
2. In the Navigation section of the Design tab, click Next Section. The label of the Header area changes to Header.
3. Set up your header information here. To insert page numbers, do this:
   • In the Header & Footer section, click Page Number.
   • Select Current Position. (Warning: If you select one of the "Top of Page" options, Word will blow away any header content that already exists!)
   • Select Plain Number. Word inserts a page number field at the cursor position.
4. Format the page number. When you insert the page number field, Word starts numbering at page one of your document, even if your first page header doesn't display anything. As a result, the first numbered page of your manuscript will be 2. You want it to be 1, so you'll need to format the page number by performing these steps:
   • In the Header & Footer section of the Design tab, click Page Number and select Format Page Number. The Page Number Format dialog is displayed.
   • Click the radio button next to Start at. The value of Start at is displayed as 1.
   • Change the value of Start at to 0 and click OK. The first page of your manuscript is now page 1, skipping the title page.
5. Either click Close Header and Footer or double-click the body of the document.

If you have more than one page of front matter, this won't work because you can't set the Start at value to less than 0. In that instance, you'll need to use Word section breaks-- but that's a topic for another day.

"Ask Sam" is a weekly feature. If you have questions about using Windows (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) or Word (2003 or 2007), send e-mail to stfalco AT yahoo.com and I'll try to answer your questions here.

Molli Marks Up the First Page

Publishing consultant Molli Nickell reviewed first pages, spoke on the state of the publishing industry and encouraged a captive audience to review their use of adjectives, adverbs and weak verbs in order to polish the first page (and others, as well) of their manuscript. She emphasized the need to grab attention, mentioning that most editors know within six or seven sentences if you are a writer. She also remarked that Times Roman is the new font standard, and cautioned against fudging on double-spacing to get more lines on the first page.

Though focused on fiction, Molli included advice for the non-fiction writer and reviewed several non-fiction works.

She concluded by mentioning four books that she has found very useful for the writer:
1. How to Write a Book Proposal - by Michael Larson (good for non-fiction, especially)
2. What's Your Story? - by Marion Dane Bauer (good overall plus for young writers - fiction)
3. Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook - by Donald Maass
4. The First Five Pages - by Noah Lukeman

You can read Sam's review of the third book, by Maass, on an earlier posting on this blog and I can second the motion that the fourth book is valuable, as I've read it and learned a lot.

UPDATE: Molli will return in October to review your synopsis!