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    The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
    The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
    The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
    Audiobook5 hours

    The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile

    Written by Noah Lukeman

    Narrated by Angus Freathy

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLukeman Literary Management
    Release dateOct 5, 2017
    ISBN9781640295674
    The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile

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    Reviews for The First Five Pages

    4.5/5

    92 ratings10 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great insights on writing fiction. Right at the top of my list, along with the best writing books. The focus is a lot on how to actually write better and how to improve your manuscript overall, and less on things such as plotting or creating characters.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Informative n to the point. Not sure what else to say.
    • 5/5
      I got more out of this one book than all my writing courses combined!
    • 3/5
      Buena guía para escritores principiantes, escrita desde la perspectiva de un editor. Aunque sus consejos son útiles, es un trabajo escrito desde y para un público estadounidense, pensando en su industria editorial y en la variante estadounidense del inglés, por lo que muchos de los consejos resultan superfluos en otros ámbitos (o en una prosa sin vida muy preocupada por mostrar y no decir). Quizá uno de los problemas del libro, aunque es entendible dado el público al cual está dirigido, sean las prohibiciones que lanza a cada paso (don't... se repite demasiado). Pero, insisto, para principiantes puede ser útil.
    • 5/5
      If I had read this book years ago, it's just possible that I would have been published by now. Maybe even several times if I had read it more than once, which I will now. I think my formula should be read this book about 10 times per novel I am working on.
    • 5/5
      This book is vivid, expressive, and concise. I’d recommend it to anyone in pursuit of improving their writing skills. Five stars!
    • 5/5
      Really exceptional book on how to write well and get published
    • 5/5
      There are a bevy of writing handbook devoted to style, rules and conjecture: this is not one of them. Staying true to the idea od succintness, Lukemam breaks down the erros in manuscripts with such precision, that by the end of the book, you wonder how you'd never seen the erros in your work before. Masterfully written and it is now in my god-tier pile of writing manuals.
    • 1/5
      Unfortunately this material must have been written some time ago! The chap refers to typed manuscripts- a thing of the past, including self addressed envelopes for a reply- obviously written before emails and research techniques that are 30 years out of date!
      I think todays writers are way more savvy and need much more specific advice.
    • 3/5
      Good advice sometimes. My main complaint is that most examples of what not to do are shown in such egregiously bad writing examples that it actually distracts from the point the author is trying to make.