false 263254 3 The difference between <i>The First Five Pages</i> 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, <i>New York Times</i> 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. <I>--Jane Steinberg</I> 255192 1 1 2000 The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile total:237|5:63|4:94|3:60|2:17|1:3| 237 908 442 53 4 1 false false Mon Aug 04 21:34:37 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 19:27:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Dec 01 02:22:02 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 01 06:15:23 -0800 2007
His perspective as an agent is especially enlightenin...more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Jan 17 16:54:35 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 16:55:08 -0800 2009 2 1 false false Mon Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 13:01:11 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 13:08:50 -0700 2009
The first five page...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 11:41:11 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 10:22:09 -0700 2009 http://yannabe.com/2009/05/21/review-the...

Summary: A literary agent and former editor shares tips on how to make your first 5 pages shine.

Review: I would recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers over this book. However, if you’re looking for another slightl...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 15:43:53 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 21:59:17 -0700 2009
Not the most helpful book on editing. I prefer Lyon's MANUSCRIPT MAKEOVER, Bell's REVISION & SELF-EDITING, and Browne & King's SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS. I expected it to clearly explain how to make the ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 14:41:18 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 14:41:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu Feb 19 05:53:49 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 06:28:50 -0800 2009 I'm a BOM novelist, published by Simon & Schuster and teach writing myself. What I tell my students is tha...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 09:22:55 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 09:54:11 -0700 2009 1 The First Five Pages is a concise, useful guide to helping writers address the more common manuscript issues that keep them from being publishable. The chapters are arranged to address issues in order of importance to agents; and then describes the issue, presents common problems for that issue, and...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Dec 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 07:39:42 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 26 14:20:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Apr 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 18:57:25 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 18:58:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 06:15:39 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 06:19:11 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Apr 25 20:01:35 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 20:03:54 -0700 2009
After reading the first two chapters of this book, I felt as though I had been going out in the literary community with my pants down--the errors I was making! Yikes!

The exercises are great and very helpfu...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 15 03:41:20 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 03:41:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Jul 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 19:41:47 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 19:47:28 -0700 2008 The Plot Thickens.

To start with, the whole "first five pages" thing is a bait-and-switch; it suggests that the book is specifically focused on beginnings, but in fact, Lukeman says, "If there are too many adjectives...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Sep 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 12:55:35 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 18:58:39 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 21:55:52 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 11:00:16 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 08:22:57 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 04:20:11 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Dec 17 06:52:14 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 16:23:57 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Thu Jul 09 15:37:13 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 15:38:03 -0700 2009