The First Five Page, Ad Infinitum
Key thing learned from Noah Lukeman’s book? That every paragraph, every page, every chapter should be treated like the first five pages. Show, don’t tell; ensure the style fits the tone of the piece; use setting as character, take advantage of how sentence structures ‘sound’, keep the pacing and progression intense and on course. His guide “To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile” delves into the rewrite process of the entire manuscript, not just those very first pages.
Good advice, especially from a literary agent, but I’ve read it all before. With one exception (Lukeman’s chapter on HOOKS - see more below), I’ve read this all before. In fact, I’d have to say that SELF EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS (see my comments) does a better job of laying out the realities of constructing a strong piece of prose because of the detailed before and after examples used to support each and every issue. And Lukeman never, ever, mentions RUE: Refuse the Urge to Explain -- perhaps one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in the past year.
Ironically enough, the one chapter in Lukeman’s book that deals with those First Five Pages is Chapter 14 -- The Hook. I found it particularly illuminating that he considers books with subdued openings to have the most potential. Less of a chance of being disappointed versus an opening line (or paragraph) that demonstrates an initial intensity because it sets a heighten expectation for the remainder of the book. I see where he’s coming from but he’s an agent, I’m an unpublished author, and I have a gut feeling that if I don’t grab the reader (be it agent or editor) immediately, they’re never going to get past that first sentence or paragraph. My ‘jury’ is still out on this and I hope to poll other writers in the SHU program as well as my current and former mentors once I get to PA in June.
All in all, I wouldn’t say that this book was useless, just redundant. I’ll certainly pull it out in late June when I make my ‘list’ of steps I need to take once in rewrite phase. But more as a backup check to Self-Editing Still, I would have very much liked to see more discussion on techniques tried and true for grabbing the reader in those First Five Pages.
SIDEBAR: Found a good interview with Lukeman where he discusses the business of running an agency and the challenges for the new author to get published. There’s some discussion regarding Women’s Literature (aka Chick Lit) in the piece as well but nothing on speculative fiction.
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