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

However, once beyond his excellent treatments on modifiers, sound, comparison, and style, one becomes acutely aware that like writing, editing is a highly subjective field. Many of the techniques that he advocates for sentence construction and dialogue directly contradicts the advice of other well-credentialed editors. This is where a strong sense of the strengths of your own writing, the conventions of your genre, and the preferences of your agent or editor is going to help you, and where "The First Five Pages" will fall short.

Rather than strictly being a "how not to get rejected off the bat" guide as the cover blurb claims, "The First Five Pages" also endeavors to show you how to write the best novel you can. That's fine. But if you take Lukeman too seriously, you might come to the conclusion that he would rather you not write at all than have a single word out of place. It comes as no surprise, them, that towards the end of the book (and prominent on his literary agency's webpage), we find Lukeman's particular bias: "Ovid, the Roman poet, said one should wait nine years after finishing one's work before seeking publication. Here lies the difference between someone writing for money and a writer."

If it's your goal to win a Pulitzer Prize, that's an admirable sentiment. For the rest of us making our livings as writers, who want to write great stories that make people think or feel, you are well advised to pick and choose from Lukeman's advice.

If you can only buy one book on writing, I instead recommend Donald Maass's excellent book "How to Write the Breakout Novel" which not only focuses on good writing, but the themes and techniques which can make a novel a best-seller. Additionally, "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Renni Browne and Dave King gives some excellent tips, though they disagree with Lukeman on some key points.

My best advice is to read as many of these books as you can: take to heart those points on which everyone agrees, internalize the rest, and just write.


An entertaining book for both readers and writers   February 28, 2000
 31 out of 35 found this review helpful

Although the book is designed to help fiction writers get published, its appeal is far broader than that. Lukeman has many examples of bad writing that are laugh out loud funny. These examples by exagerating the particular fault, make his points very well, whether setting, pace or excessive use of adjectives. (Lukeman also warns us that these are not the worst examples.) I came away from the book with a far greater appreciation of how well the books I read are written and edited and the tremendous amount of work and skill required to write a book. I would recommend this book to both aspiring writers and avid readers.


Elitism gone wrong   December 26, 2001
 31 out of 48 found this review helpful

If one word describes The First Five pages, it is misleading..., no arrogant..., no, annoying ..., a rewrite of something much shorter and better-The Elements of Style.

The title is misleading. If anything, this book should be subtitled "Elements of editing", not "The Writer's Guide on staying out of the Rejection pile". [But who would have bought it with such a title?] Nothing is said on how to satisfy an agent or publisher. The most we learn about agents and publishers is they are overworked, underpaid, and omnipotent. Noah Lukeman then tells us many have little experience, and only really want to reject a manuscript to reduce their workload. Nowhere does he tell us how to work within this framework.

The entire premise of The First Five pages is arrogance. The premise is agents and publishers can quickly identify good and bad work without consideration of the story. Lukeman tells us how "common mistakes" in presentation, dialogue, characterization, hooks, and tone will torpedo a submission. Get these right and you will receive immediate interest. The realtor's advise of "paint the front door" is throughout.

Strangely, Lukeman ridicules the efforts of writers with academic, journalistic or other backgrounds. Anything other than poverty is suspicious-the struggling writer in a garret is superior to a writer with success elsewhere as if there is something redeeming about failure.

The tone is elitist-only those anointed by God really know how to write. Many of the references reinforce this point. They are those wordy "classics" we were forced to read in the ninth grade. Nowhere is there the notion that reading and writing should be fun.

The best one word description is annoying--annoyance that I foolishly thought the title had something to do with this book. This work can be read as a condemnation of the publishing industry or as help in editing, but not how to stay out of the slush pile.


A swing and a miss   November 27, 2005
 31 out of 32 found this review helpful

Noah Lukeman offers what every beginning writer needs: insider information. As a literary agent with a stable of award-winning authors, Lukeman offers to dish the publishing dirt that will ensure anyone's manuscript rises to the top of any agent or publisher's stack.

But does the book live up to the marketing?

Lukeman covers the basics that are currently in vogue:

* Delivering a professional-looking manuscript
* Limiting the number of adjectives and adverbs, making certain the few that are used are punchy and unusual
* Verbalizing a manuscript to screen for its overall sound
* Choosing original metaphors and similes
* Avoiding a precious or contrived style
* Balancing realistic dialogue with narration
* Punching up ho-hum dialogue
* Driving the story through dialogue
* Cutting out melodrama
* Simplifying complex character interaction
* Showing, not telling
* Perfecting narrative and POV
* Creating realistic characters
* Crafting hooks without being manipulative
* Learning subtlety
* Maintaining a consistent tone
* Keeping the manuscript's focus
* Devising believable settings that involves all five senses
* Pacing the work through a natural progression

While this is an excellent list of issues to address in a writing book, the problem comes from the trade size and the under-200 page length. For Lukeman to cover these topics to any depth beyond absolute beginner stage, he needs at least fifty percent more content per issue.

There are other problems that limit the usefulness of this book. The examples of bad writing are so blatant that their usefulness is questionable. The advice on how to fix writing problems is okay, but never transcends beginning-level wisdom. Any writer hoping to do the very thing Lukeman promises--get that manuscript published--could do worse, but with so many other outstanding writing books out there, why stick with one that's merely fair? Considering the author's pedigree, his book is a letdown.

For any writer who has never picked up a book on writing, this one's acceptable. For the rest of us, though, consider looking for something more weighty (such as "Stein on Writing.")






A great reference tool for writers at all tiers.   April 18, 2002
 30 out of 32 found this review helpful

I bought this book to help me figure out how I can stop getting rejected so often. I wish I would have read it before I started writing.

As clear and concise as Strunk & White, this little book is an important addition to any writer's toolbox. It covers all the bases on how to make bad writing good, and good writing great.

If I had a complaint, it would be that the examples of what not to do are so horribly written. Then again, they get the point across without a lot of time-consuming study!