Ah-ha! Check this out:
“I hate seeing a ‘run-down list:’ Names, hair color, eye color, height, even weight sometimes. Other things that bother me is over-describing the scenery or area where the story starts. Usually a manuscript can lose the first 3-5 chapters and start there. Besides the run-down list preaching to me about a subject, I don’t like having a character immediately tell me how much he/she hates the world for whatever reason. In other words, tell me your issues on politics, the environment, etc. through your character. That is a real turn off to me.”
– Miriam Hees (editor), Blooming Tree Press
Thank goodness someone else has said this. I’m a writer, not an agent, but one of my worse peeves IN THE WORLD is running into a grocery list description of the character as I’m reading rather than that description being sprinkled in. When I see it from a good writer who’s been writing for years… I’m just aghast.
I’m not even going to get started on abruptly being mired and sucked down in scenery that has interrupted the action and WILL NOT STOP, even though I’m skimming the edge of a proverbial knife blade and desperately trying to catch sight of the character again to SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
Agents’ Chapter 1 Pet Peeves is a post on the The Guide To Literary Agents blog from August 2008, but its message never goes out of date. In my humble opinion, the advice you can gain from it is invaluable when it comes to your manuscript getting noticed the right way, so absorb that post down to its last letter and incorporate it. You’ll be glad you did.
Thanks to An Englishman In New Jersey for the tip on this (in a roundabout way LOL).
Go forth and conquer.
