Top Ten Things To Avoid Opening Chapter-wise

The occupation of "literary agent" always sounds glamorous, but that's only when you consider how much muck they have to wade through to find anything halfway decent. Agent Kristin, the self-described "very nice literary agent" (in opposition to my beloved Miss Snark, one must assume) has made a list of the Top 10 Things I’d Rather Not See in Opening Chapters. These mostly deal with fantasy, which makes a fair amount of sense when you think about it. My favorite?

10. Starting your cover letter for your sample pages with: this is a 250,000 word manuscript…

This link stolen shamelessly from Oz and Ends.