FIRST PAGE SHOWDOWN IS LIVE!

Posted on February 27, 2025 | by admin

I want to thank everybody for sending their first pages in. It was fun reading through all of them. For me, it’s always a reminder of how difficult it is to write something that stands out. Due to the fact that these pages are pitted against other pages within seconds, it’s much easier to compare their quality than it is when you’re reading a new first page every day or two.

The truth is, there weren’t a lot of bad pages. I can count the number of “bad” pages I read on two hands. The real problem is that there were a lot of average pages. Pages that did the job but didn’t grab me or stand out in any way. For example, there were a lot of pages where we start on a mundane situation and then, at the end of the page, there’s a big explosion, or a crash, or a murder.

And, sure, that’s better than a page of aimlessness. But it’s still really easy to write a page like that. I was looking for pages that were written extremely well or surprised me in some way or set up a compelling dramatic scenario or displayed an interesting voice.

Just writing an average page then saying, KABOOM! At the end isn’t going to cut it. Even the writers who did what I said to do – which is drop us into an active scenario – a lot of you dropped us into an active scenario… that was predictable. Or cliched.

For example, I got a lot of scripts that started with people running in the woods. And either someone was after them or they were after someone. Yeah, technically, something is “happening” in these scenes. But it’s such obvious stuff that’s happening. So it didn’t stand out.

Below are the pages that stood out to me. And, if you’ve never participated in a showdown before, this is how it works. Read the five pages, identify the one you like the most, and vote for it with a comment (down in the comment section). You have until 10:00pm Pacific Time Sunday night. I review the page with the most votes on Monday.

Can’t wait to see what you guys think of these pages.

Good luck to everyone!

Title: The First Horseman
Genre: Thriller