A popular thing to do at writers’ conferences and science fiction conventions is the ORC, or Open Read and Critique. Participants, who can range from professional to aspiring writers, will usually go around in a circle and read the first page of a manuscript and everybody else will give feedback on it.
I’ve often found the feedback given to be helpful, and I thought I’d adapt the concept to maybe help out some other authors as well as create more content for my YouTube channel. So, I’m going to start soliciting people’s first pages, if I get any entries, I will read them out loud, then give my feedback, and invite others to give feedback in the comments. So, rather than the traditional circle, I will be giving out all the initial feedback myself, and not reading other people’s works instead of my own.
I will also post the full text in my blog, so people can read and give feedback here as well.
Note, I’ll just be sharing my own ideas about the writing, plot, characters, world-building, whatever else pops up on that first page. I’m an author with three novels published which have all been well-received, but nothing I saw should be taken as The Word Of God – it’s just my own opinion. Same with anyone else who shares their opinion in either the YouTube comments or here on the blog.
If you’re interested in having the first page of your work read and critiqued here, you can submit it using the form at https://pluther.us/submission-for-first-page-critique/