Boring.

Well, it's hard to give useful advice without more details, but may I suggest just chopping the entire opening out, and whatever other parts are dull? You can always add them back later if you want. But see if your main characters don't introduce themselves through their actions instead. Or if you must, set a limit for yourself to maybe one sentence each time a main character appears for the first time - readers don't really need to know their whole histories (or even what they look like) right away, just the bits that are vitally important to the immediate scene. You can sprinkle the rest in in little non-boring snippets as the novel progresses.

I've heard a little rule of thumb that may help you out here: "Don't go into any expanded details, exposition or flashback until at least chapter three." Basically, chapter one is the hook, how you bring in your reader. Chapter two is for a bit of expansion on chapter one and then chapter three is when you start explaining how the heck you got there and who the heck your characters are.

Get a second opinion! I mean, who's to say that what one person finds boring, another person finds enthralling? For example: I hate chick flicks. Passionately. I think they're dry as dust, predictable - ugh. But there are millions of people out there who love them! I've got a friend who loaned me a book series that he says is a must read for every fantasy writer. I think it's boring, poor writting, and predictable - but he loves it! Don't rewrite everything because one person doesn't like it. You can't please everybody.

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everyone else.

- Umberto Eco

Yeah, I understand, but it's a little hard to think differently if I look through and say, "Wow, they're right."

The reason most things are boring, I find, in literature is that there is simply too much description. This affects a novel far more than even plot, in my opinion. For instance, I read The Scarlet Letter and I found it horrid. Interesting premise, but it was so overwritten my brain just skimmed the writing and wrote it off as dull because there was so much verbage in it. Then, I read Hemingway, and while I find his plots boring if not a little absurd, his writing style, with very little Latinate phrasing and only vivid descriptions of the scenery, makes the book seem so much more exciting.

It's hard to make judgments about your writing without reading it, so I'll just generalize here. I checked your profile, and considering your age, teens (myself included in this category) often try and "fluff" up their writing. I remember when I was 13-14, I wrote epic descriptions thinking they made my writing seem older. I fooled a couple teachers with this method, but now, at nearly 17, my teacher told me to pair down, and it would really make my writing seem more mature. While I'm no Hemingway, I think it did, and reading my stories is a lot more interesting because you don't have to wade through a lot of description to get to the meat of the story. (I do overuse commas, still. This is a vice.)

Now, like I said, that may not be you. I'm just speaking from my own personal experiences as writer a couple years back, and what made MY work boring.

Like others before me suggested, ask someone else. It may just be that this person doesn't like the genre you are writing in. My friend has begun writing in a different genre, and I can not stand to read her stories right now, but I love her prior literary fiction work. However, if you are seeing changes that need to be made yourself, by all means, make them. Most authors go through multiple full rewrites before even submitting their work to an agent.

Consider reading more books that you like in your genre and seeing how those authors set their books into motion. It helps to figure out what works and what doesn't, and then take how they do it and make it your own.

Best of luck.

Can you give us the basic plot in three or four sentences and what the first paragraph is?

The best editor (which I think you might need, by the sounds of your problem) of all is time. Let time do it's damage to your story by putting it away and working on something else- or, hell,, you don't have to write something else, just READ alot of your influencers (authors you think you write like or would like to write like) and go back when you can barely recall anything in so-and-so chapter. Probably ages later.

Trust me, the cool-down period is vital and totally normal for authors. And when you come back to it, you'll have the eyes of a surveyor (and a critic) and not the eyes of the creator, neccesarily.

NaNoWriMo 2007- "Abstract Hearts" 40,696 Words (Unfinished)

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"A mother who radiates self-love and self-acceptance vaccinates her daughter against low self-esteem. " -- Naomi Wolf

I just read the excerpt in your profile and from what I am seeing:

You are doing a lot of telling as opposed to showing. The characters tell each other that they love each other, which is fine, but in the first seven sentences five of them say that the characters are in love. This pops up every few paragraphs.

If you show it in the intimacy between the two characters (which you do), you don't need to say it. The tangle of limbs and the tenderness that you portray are enough. Trust me.

It's more important that the reader feels it for themselves.

That is the best advice that I can give you.

The coroner will find ink in my veins and blood on my typewriter keys.
~C. Astrid Weber