Is Your Second Chapter a Flashback?

A sign of "first draft"

Photo by Ferrando Elias on Unsplash

I was browsing publishers for a project of mine—that middle-grade historical novel that won’t grow up and leave home!

In my search I stumbled over the following paragraph, on the website of one of the publishers:

Do not query fiction unless you have a completed, polished draft. While you’re waiting, check for these issues: Have you broken the narrative to explain or summarize? Did you write the second chapter of your novel as a flashback? Did you get inside a violent character’s point of view in lieu of exploring the consequences of their actions on the main character? These can be signs of a manuscript in the early stages of development. We recommend that you employ the skills in Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft as you revise your novel or creative nonfiction. **

This really caught me. Especially the piece about “second chapter as a flashback.”