The First Five Pages:
A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
By Noah Lukeman
A Fireside Book, Published by Simon & Schuster, 2000
ISBN 978-0-684-85743-5
ISBN 0-684-85743-X

Noah Lukeman is a New York literary agent. He has represented many best selling and award winning authors and has been in a position to read a massive number of manuscripts; ones that have eventually been published and many more that have not.

This book is about how to maximize your chances of being published. It dispels many myths about what it takes to be published. This is highly encouraging, as Lukeman makes the strong point that it is not who you know, family connections, etc. that determine your success, despite what many think. Rather it is an issue of making enough mistakes to get you rejected.

Some of the mistakes authors make cause instant rejection. Others slowly buildup to a feeling by the reader to reject. So many of these mistakes come down to poor craft. This book goes step by step through the mistakes that authors made, in a clearly written way. The book is broken up into the following sections and chapters:
1. Preliminary Problems
• Presentation
• Adjectives and Adverbs
• Sound
• Comparison
• Style
2. Dialogue
• Between the Lines
• Commonplace
• Informative
• Melodramatic
• Hard to Follow
3. The Bigger Picture
• Showing Versus Telling
• Viewpoint and Narration
• Characterization
• Hooks
• Subtlety
• Tone
• Focus
• Setting
• Pacing and Progression

Within each chapter, Lukeman lists the mistakes within that category and then goes on to offer solutions or fixes. He illustrates each with clear examples, showing failures and solutions in use.

This book is brilliant. It is applicable to both fiction and non-fiction writers, even though significant parts of the book are particularly about fiction. Some of the mistakes are obvious but others are not. In all cases Lukeman makes it clear and interesting. I found the book a rapid read and one that I will re-read many times over to make sure that the lessons sink in.

This book belongs on the shelf of every book writer who is aspiring to be published and should be consulted frequently. This is solid, hard earned wisdom that is surprisingly easy to learn from and work with. End of chapter exercises encourage you to work with your own text.

A brilliant book that will definitely make your writing better. Highly recommended.

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


On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

By Stephen King

Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, 2000

(Hardcover by Scribner, 2000)

ISBN-13 978-0-7434-5596-1

ISBN-10 0-7434-5596-7

Whatever you may think of Stephen King’s writing, there is no denying his huge presence over at least the US and really the English-speaking world’s writing. This book as an interesting as its author.

In On Writing, King sets out to do two things: provide a short autobiography that is particularly oriented to what has impacted his writing career and a very practical book on how to write fiction.

The first 90-odd pages is the autobiography. It is an extremely likeable, very open description of his life, the highs and lows and, through it all, how his writing was going. I am impressed by the openness and honesty of this part of the book. I found it fascinating, relating events in his life to the book he was writing at the time and the motivations and triggers. This is great stuff, as it helps you, to a greater degree than many other books, to get inside the head of a bestselling author and see that they are just as human as you, with the same tendency to stuff up, if not in the same ways.

The second part of the book, some 200 pages, is almost like sitting down with King and having a one-on-one writing workshop. He is quite blunt and to the point, and has little time for pretentious literary writing. Using many examples, King illustrates the common and not so common mistakes people make and how to learn from them and then avoid them. He talks about inspiration and ideas, how he turns them into a story and the ways he has found are effective to work. These may not be valid for everyone but they are well reasoned and make good sense. King is a believer in the character-driven approach to novel writing and makes a good case for it. He also makes a great case for a disciplined approach to writing through writing everyday and working to a set target word count per day. He even shows the first draft of a section of 1408 and the edits he made, as a great learning exercise in tightening up a piece of text.

This is not only a must read, it is also a must re-read fairly frequently. I know I will be. It is a great book and something that I believe any aspiring writer will learn so much from. Buy it and keep it close to where you write.

On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft on Amazon US

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft on Amazon UK

On writing horror
Revised edition
A Handbook by The Horror Writers Association
Edited by Mort Castle
Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, 2007
ISBN 1-58297-420-9
ISBN 978-1-58297-420-0

If you are interested in writing horror, this 260-page book is essential. In fact there is a lot of good stuff in here for people interested in writing any type of fiction.

The eight part book covers the whole spread of writing horror, ranging from core concepts, like characterization and plot, to genre specific details of writing gore and action scenes. The editor has achieved this by sourcing contributions from leading and upcoming horror (and science fiction) authors, editors and publishers.

The book is divided into eight parts:

• Horror, Literature and Horror Literature
• An Education in Horror
• Developing Horror Concepts
• Horror Crafting
• Horror, Art, Innovation, Excellence
• Tradition and Modern Times
• Genre and Subgenre
• Horror Business: Selling, Marketing, Promoting

Each part contains from three to ten essays that focus on a particular aspect.

The advice is nothing short of brilliant. I can only hope that there are similar books that are as good for aspiring authors in other genres, and in fiction generally. The editor has done a great job of ensuring that each contribution is of an equally high standard. There are no weak contributions and not one that I did not get at least two great pieces of information from, which is a major achievement in a book of this type. Even essays on topics I was not overly interested in, such as the one on comics and graphic novels, contained useful information I could extrapolate to my interests. Perhaps this just reflects my low level of knowledge, but I really do believe it has hit the mark throughout.

Particular highlights are all of Part Four, which examines the craft of writing and Robert Weinberg’s ‘What You Are Meant to Know: Twenty-One Horror Classics’. This latter was an education in pointing me to particular books, some of which I had never heard of, which are considered classics or have something important to teach. I’ve added them to my existing list of ‘to read’ books and have been most impressed with the ones I have read so far. You even learn something from the individual styles of the essays: each having its own voice and approach.

This is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it.

On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association on Amazon US
On Writing Horror: A Handbook by "The Horror Writers of America" on Amazon UK