Megan Manzano

The ideal character arc - think like a bell curve - will establish:

1. Where the character began (bottom of the curve)
2. Trace what pushed the character to change (rise/falls of the curve)
3. Show us where they land (end of curve)

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While narrative parallels usually involve the overarching plot, character arcs are much more intimate. They involve someone we've started with, who ideally is being pushed to change. For better or worse depends on the story.

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Narrative parallels - when they're done well - hype up an audience b/c:

1. It signals a change from past to present
2. It shows growth
3. It lets us examine a familiar plot in a new context
4. Usually stuff is about to go down

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For example,

Bran telling Littlefinger "Chaos is a Ladder" as a parallel to season one and the most obvious example, "Not Today" said by badass Arya Stark.

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How I'm defining narrative parallels here is when certain characters/events either come back around later in the story or a plot unfolds in a similar manner as one we had before.

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The next post in my Now What series by @RachelFeinberg_ discusses how to face and overcome Imposter Syndrome after signing with an agent.

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meganmanzano129.wordpress.com/2019/05/10/now…

A good way to indicate you have plans for a series in your query is to say, "X is a standalone with series potential." This lets an agent know while reading your submission materials and it'll be something they talk about with rep.

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Reminder: Even if you have a series planned, your first book has to be able to stand alone.

The reason for this is a whole series doesn't always sell. Sometimes it's just the first book until sales come in.

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Because I'm me and love suffering, opening lines that punch me in the gut or are catchy as heck are a weakness of mine.

This is just a me thing though strong opening lines are always A+

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I don't need a play by play but I want to start to see what's going to make them tick and begin to question what they may have to lose as we go forward.

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Third, I want to see what your MC's life is like. Your opening pages are moving towards the inciting incident and even before that giving us a reason to care about your MC.

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If your story is set in space and your opening pages don't indicate that, then it can feel your story is happening in a bubble. I can't picture where we are and it gets slippery.

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The second is I want to get a sense of your world. It'll obviously be very basic since the story has just begun but I want at least a brick of a house.

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As for what I mean by voice - give me a small insight into your MC's personality.

Are they sassy? Shy? Murderous? Let's see a glimpse through opening events or narration/internal thought.

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The first is pretty simple. Let me meet who I'm going to be following throughout the story.

If you have more than one MC, it's okay to not meet them right away. You only have a limited amount of sample pages.

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There are three key things I like to see in one's opening pages:

1. An introduction to the main character/their voice

2. Some hint of the setting/worldbuilding

3. A trickle of your MC's life

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Every agent will read these documents differently. I personally read the query, the sample pages, then the synopsis, but I definitely want all of these upon submission.

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The synopsis goes over the key components of your plot which - if an agent is interested in your pages and query - will want to know. This will give them a hint to how you build plot and let them see how you round out character arcs.

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A query presents your main character, what they want, your stakes, and key facts to let an agent know if they're the right fit for your work. Audience, word count, genre - all important things to know at the beginning.

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And that's what good character development is. Seeing where a character began, what made them change, and what is the result of that change.

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