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

It's worth buying if nothing else. But if you have any experience under your belt, some of the information will be givens to you.

Fair warning.

Wolfe

If you never want to do another rewrite DON't BUY THIS BOOK - if you want to get published and be professional - buy 2 copies! Great book, enough said.

This book goes beyond telling authors what to look for and correct to get agents to pick their manuscript from the many, but it reveals the secrets to create superb writing period. It goes beyond the first five pages. It takes you to the final credits on good writing that sits well with those that publish.

or if you're in the sixth grade, you might need this book. Trite, silly, so basic and ridiculous, it's insulting. Maybe if it were the least bit well written, it might be sort of worth it. But, please, let me SHOW you rather than TELL you what I mean.

The first sentence of chapter 4 (Comparison) reads: "A picture is worth a thousand words..." No, I'm not kidding. He wrote that. Then, I choose this from many, many examples of bad grammar, only because it's in the same paragraph: "Comparison is one of the few devices that really put (sic) a writer's skill in the spotlight...." Turn the page for this bit of poorly phrased wisdom: "Bad or cliche comparisons jump off the page. They indicate imprecision or laziness in searching for the right picture....If a writer doesn't care enough about his work to paint precisely the right picture, why should the reader waste his time reading it?"
My point. Exactly.

I so loved this book. I have read it twice, and will keep it for a reference.

Problems found in writing are grouped in chapters. I. preliminary problems: presentation, adjectives and adverbs, sounsd, comparison, style, II dialogue: between the lines, comonplace, informative, melodramatic, hard to follow, III. the bigger picture: showing versus telling, viewpoint and narration, characterization, hooks, subtlety, tone, focus, setting, and pacing and progression. Solutions are given to problems and exercises are presented at the end of each chapter.