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A review by bporath
The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman
4.0
The First Five Pages is a writing book about the common problems in the first five pages of novels, and how to fix them so that your first five pages shine (and so that you don't get rejected).
The author, agent Noah Lukeman, points out in the introduction that problems found in the first five pages can indicate that the reader (an agent or editor) will find these same problems later in the novel (which is why you need to fix them all). Each chapter covers a different topic, starting with the smallest problems that readers would notice first, then moving into bigger problems that take more reading to notice.
Noah Lukeman managed to cover a wide range of problems, from presentation to characterization to sound. Each chapter includes the mistakes writers make with this writing element, solutions to the problems, examples, and exercises at the end of the chapter.
Overall, I thought The First Five Pages was a very helpful book for polishing your first five pages, but also for showing you that your novel might need more work than you think. I recommend taking notes for each chapter because there's a lot of information packed into each chapter.
It would also be a great book to read before or while revising- it's not a how-to book for revision, but it shows you how to find the problems in your writing and how to fix them.
Noah Lukeman describes each problem and its solution clearly and thoughtfully. Reading this made me reconsider a lot of things about my own WiP, and Noah pointed out many problems that I never even considered before.
The one thing that I didn't like about The First Five Pages was that at some times, it seemed a bit too basic. I know I'm not an especially advanced writer, but some of the problems mentioned would only be done by a very beginning writer. Also, almost all of the examples the author wrote were way too basic- I would have liked to see how to spot problems when they weren't spelled out so easily. At other times, the topics were more advanced- like sound, style, and subtlety.
I'd recommend The First Five Pages to all writers regardless of skill level. Beginning writers will learn a lot from it, but I bet some advanced writers could learn a thing or two from it.
The author, agent Noah Lukeman, points out in the introduction that problems found in the first five pages can indicate that the reader (an agent or editor) will find these same problems later in the novel (which is why you need to fix them all). Each chapter covers a different topic, starting with the smallest problems that readers would notice first, then moving into bigger problems that take more reading to notice.
Noah Lukeman managed to cover a wide range of problems, from presentation to characterization to sound. Each chapter includes the mistakes writers make with this writing element, solutions to the problems, examples, and exercises at the end of the chapter.
Overall, I thought The First Five Pages was a very helpful book for polishing your first five pages, but also for showing you that your novel might need more work than you think. I recommend taking notes for each chapter because there's a lot of information packed into each chapter.
It would also be a great book to read before or while revising- it's not a how-to book for revision, but it shows you how to find the problems in your writing and how to fix them.
Noah Lukeman describes each problem and its solution clearly and thoughtfully. Reading this made me reconsider a lot of things about my own WiP, and Noah pointed out many problems that I never even considered before.
The one thing that I didn't like about The First Five Pages was that at some times, it seemed a bit too basic. I know I'm not an especially advanced writer, but some of the problems mentioned would only be done by a very beginning writer. Also, almost all of the examples the author wrote were way too basic- I would have liked to see how to spot problems when they weren't spelled out so easily. At other times, the topics were more advanced- like sound, style, and subtlety.
I'd recommend The First Five Pages to all writers regardless of skill level. Beginning writers will learn a lot from it, but I bet some advanced writers could learn a thing or two from it.