|
The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile | 
 enlarge | Author: Noah Lukeman
Publisher: Fireside
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $6.39
You Save: $7.56 (54%)
New (33) Used (24) Collectible (1) from $6.39
Avg. Customer Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 12464
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 068485743X
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.02
EAN: 9780684857435
ASIN: 068485743X
Publication Date: January 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: We ship daily! All orders ship out within 2 business days from OR. Your satisfaction is guaranteed!
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
The difference between The First Five Pages and most books on writing is that the others are written by teachers and writers. This one comes from a literary agent--one whose clients include Pulitzer Prize nominees, New York Times bestselling authors, Pushcart Prize recipients, and American Book Award winners. Noah Lukeman is not trying to impart the finer points of writing well. He wants to teach you "how to identify and avoid bad writing," so that your manuscript doesn't come boomeranging back to you in that self-addressed, stamped envelope. Surprise: Agents and editors don't read manuscripts for fun; they are looking for reasons to reject them. Lukeman has arranged his book "in the order of what I look for when trying to dismiss a manuscript," starting with presentation and concluding with pacing and progression. Each chapter addresses a pitfall of poor writing--overabundance of adjectives and adverbs, tedious or unrealistic dialogue, and lack of subtlety to name just a few--by identifying the problem, presenting solutions, giving examples (one wishes these weren't quite so obvious), and offering writing exercises. It's a little bizarre to think about approaching your work as would an agent, but if you are serious about getting published, you may as well get used to it. Plus, Lukeman has plenty of solid advice worth listening to. Particularly fine are his exercises for removing and spicing up modifiers and his remedies for all kinds of faulty dialogue. --Jane Steinberg
Product Description
IF YOU'RE TIRED OF REJECTION, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU.Whether you are a novice writer or a veteran who has already had your work published, rejection is often a frustrating reality. Literary agents and editors receive and reject hundreds of manuscripts each month. While it's the job of these publishing professionals to be discriminating, it's the job of the writer to produce a manuscript that immediately stands out among the vast competition. And those outstanding qualities, says New York literary agent Noah Lukeman, have to be apparent from the first five pages. The First Five Pages reveals the necessary elements of good writing, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, journalism, or poetry, and points out errors to be avoided, such as * A weak opening hook * Overuse of adjectives and adverbs * Flat or forced metaphors or similes * Melodramatic, commonplace or confusing dialogue * Undeveloped characterizations and lifeless settings * Uneven pacing and lack of progression With exercises at the end of each chapter, this invaluable reference will allow novelists, journalists, poets and screenwriters alike to improve their technique as they learn to eliminate even the most subtle mistakes that are cause for rejection. The First Five Pages will help writers at every stage take their art to a higher -- and more successful -- level.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 113 more reviews...
 Thank You Mr Lukeman October 5, 2008
Mr Lukeman's advice is incredible in this age where all rules, mores and sexes are blended. After this book in which he defends classic methods, I felt good again about returning to Melville and Dostoevsky, not to mention one of my all time favorites, Conrad, for reading and observation of their techniques. Thank you Mr Lukeman for writing this book. I read it twice, then made notes. For aspiring writers, if you want to sell a book, first get this one; if you want to write for the internet, you would'nt be interested.
 3.5 stars really September 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the First Five Pages, Noah Lukeman reveals the quickest ways a manuscript is tossed into the rejection pile. Think your numerous alliterations are clever? Manuscript readers don't. Believe you're subtlety slipping in backstory when your characters discuss their pasts? Nope, it's annoying and contrived. Subscribe to the belief that the more drama, the better? Please unsubscribe.
This book's value ultimately lies with Lukeman's editing credentials. He organizes this book according to what an editor first looks for when reading a manuscript. He tackles preliminary problems (adjectives, adverbs, comparisons, etc.) that can get your manuscript axed right away, and then focuses on bigger picture items (hooks, tone, setting, etc). At the end of each chapter, Lukeman provides helpful exercises to help you practice what you've just learned.
His book isn't without flaws. His own writing needs a little polish (he *loves* using passive voice). I also disagreed with his frequent recommendation that writers should choose "unusual" words. He later interchanges unusual with precise (which is much more appropriate), but he should have added a caveat telling writers not to go overboard. I can picture amateur writers using this advice and swapping boxers for pugilists (not a good idea). Finally, his examples of what not to do are way over the top. Lukeman admits this, and to be fair, his examples clearly illustrate his points. But he should have added mediocre examples, writing that will *just* tip the writer into the rejection pile.
However, Lukeman provides great advice with regard to dialogue, and I especially liked his chapters on subtlety. He provides much more good advice than bad, especially in his later chapters. It's funny in a way that his own book starts off rocky, but it's worth finishing it. Overall, first-time writers will get the most benefit out of the First Five Pages. More experienced writers (especially those who have been published) can do without it.
A Good Idea, Not Accomplished Well June 27, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have to agree with the February 2001 review by "A Customer": This book doesn't teach much about writing. I would go farther and say that some of what it says is either wrong or at least very unhelpful.
One can. of course, empathize with literary agents and editors who are deluged with manuscripts and must move as quickly as possible to extract a few needles of quality from the haystack of junk. There is value in this book in terms of bringing a writer -- particularly an unpublished one -- some sense of reality as to what he or she faces in the competition for attention. There is also value in making people sensitive to some of the most common "red flags" that will kill their chances for consideration.
But I found this book maddening, for a couple of reasons. First, Lukeman himself has much to learn as a writer. He writes in an overly elegant, self-absorbed style that should have earned the red pen of any competent editor. It becomes a little difficult to accept his wisdom about how things should be written when his own product is deficient. He constantly switches from the first person (both "I" and "we") to the second and third person, for example, often within the very same paragraph. What grated most on me, however, was his addiction to purple in his prose: "If you look back at your dialogue and realize you have scenes that are unsalvageable (like the last example), don't collapse in despondency." (p. 90). Collapse in despondency? Puh-leeze.
The second problem, to me far more serious, is that many of his exercises and proposed solutions to the problems he identifies are either useless or wrongheaded. For example, to solve the problem of pointless and mundane dialogue ("Hi there, how are you?" "I'm fine, and you?" "Nice weather we're having, huh?") he doesn't send people to reputable sources of help for writing effective dialogue; rather, he suggests that a writer should "train [his] ear." He writes: "Begin to pay attention to how dialogue is used in everyday life by different types of people. Eavesdrop on people -- in the subway, in a diner, walking on the street, in a store; especially try to eavesdrop on people who might be similar to your characters." (p. 89).
This suggestion is a recipe for disaster. Writing effective dialogue requires far more sophistication than the aimless guesswork that Lukeman suggests here. It would be far better for an aspiring writer with problems in this area to spend time with Gloria Kempton's Dialogue or Tom Chiarella's Writing Dialogue, to name just two helpful resources.
My suggestion, then, is that this book might be worth a look for the insights it provides into the most common mistakes that inexperienced writers may make in writing and submitting their manuscripts, but not for much help in solving these problems (except for those that can easily be avoided, like improper formatting of manuscripts). Rather, a writer who wants to create a commercially viable work should take advantage of some of the excellent resources available that really get into the hard issues that a writer must confront.
Some of the most valuable books I have benefited from include:
Beginnings, Middles & Ends: How to Get Your Stories Off to a Roaring Start, Keep Them Tight and Crisp Throughout, and End Them With a Wallop by Nancy Kress;
Plot & Structure: Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish by James Bell; and
Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Dynamic Characters and Effective Viewpoints, also by Nancy Kress.
There are many others, of course, but a writer who thoroughly applied the advice in these three -- provided he or she had the basic ability to write in proper English -- would have a significant leg up in getting into print.
Outdated but Still Useful to an Extent June 15, 2008
This book was a bit of a slog for me, and much of the advice Mr. Lukeman provides seems somewhat outdated, especially in this era of the internet when so many agents and editors blog and there are so many more resources for writers on the net. There was one particularly wretched piece of advice about sending your query letters out express which made me wince. I can think of 5 agents off the top of my head who say NEVER do this. EVER.
Mr. Lukeman also belabors his points in his end of chapter "examples", bludgeoning the reader over the head with points which he had already expressed well enough previous. His "bad" writing samples are so awful they entertain instead of illuminate. Here is an example from the dialogue section on melodramatic dialogue:
"Oh, Henry! You know I've loved you so!"
"Oh, Magaret! If only words could express my love for you!...
"Oh, darling! What would I be without you? My love, my sweetness!"
"The world would stop in its tracks without you, my Magarita!"
A few of the exercises he assigns at the end of each section are helpful if for no other reason than to make a writer really focus on the words and take a look at what they've written. I liked the exercise at the end of the "Sound" section where he assigns the writer to rewrite one of their paragraphs "and reformat it on the page as if it were a poem" (51). This helped me smooth out flow and melody in my manuscript immensely and it was fun too.
I'd say if you're looking for really germaine advice about getting published you might want to start reading agent blogs instead of this book. Kristin Nelson. Nathan Bransford and the Bookends Literary Agency blogs are good places to start your publishing education. I wouldn't say this book is unless you lack even the most basic of writing skills and publishing smarts.
Wow... time to rewrite... April 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you never want to do another rewrite DON't BUY THIS BOOK - if you want to get published and be professional - buy 2 copies! Great book, enough said.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
