First Page Workshop

First Page Workshop

Tamara Grantham

  • Resource: The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman
  • While this book examines manuscripts from the perspective of an agent or editor, it is also useful for those who self-publish. Many of the topics brought up will not only make your book more appealing, but strong, evocative writing will also push readers to buy your next book.
  • By page 5, most people have secretly made up their mind about a book. 99% of the time, they’re not going to change it.
  • From Lukeman: “From Texas to Oklahoma to California to England to Turkey to Japan, writers are doing the exact same things wrong…While evaluating more than ten thousand manuscripts in these last few years, I was able to group these mistakes into categories; eventually, I was able to set forth definite criteria, an agenda for rejecting manuscripts. This is the core of The First Five Pages: my criteria revealed to you.
  • Despite its title, this seminar is not just about the first page of your manuscript. It assumes that by closely scrutinizing the first page, you can decide how the rest of the book reads. It assumes that if you find one instance of head-hopping on page 1, you will find it on page 15 and 50 and so on.
  • The art of writing cannot be taught, but the craft of writing can.”
  • “There is no such thing as a great writer; there are only great re-writers…90% of writing is rewriting. If first drafts existed of some of the classics, you’d find many of them to be dreadful. This process of rewriting draws heavily on editing. And editing can be taught. Thus, the craft of writing, inspiration aside, can to a great extent be taught.”
  • -Noah Lukeman
  • Even when you become a master editor, you will still need a supportive group of readers to expose your work to fresh perspectives. These readers may or may not be in line with your own sensibilities, but it is good to have both. They should be supportive of you. Honest, critical, but always encouraging.
  • Even the most proficient writers cannot catch all their own mistakes, and even if they could, they would still be lacking the impartial reaction. Outside readers can see things you cannot. If you change one word due to their read, it’s worth it.
  • PRESENTATION ODDS AND ENDS:
  • Typos
  • Formatting
  • Font
  • Spacing
  • Textual Odds and Ends: The question mark, the exclamation point, parentheses, cliches.
  • PROSE VS. PLOT
  • Agents and editors often ignore synopses and plot outlines. Instead, they skip right to the actual manuscript. If the writing is good, then they’ll go back and consider the synopsis. If not, the manuscript is discarded.
  • If you don’t have prose, don’t worry about the plot.
  • ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS:
  • Modifier, n. That which modifies.
  • Adjective, n. A word used to modify a noun. For instance, in the phrase, “a wise ruler,” wise is the adjective.
  • Adverb, n. A word used to modify a verb. For instance, in the phrase, “he ran quickly,” quickly is the adverb.
  • Most people who come to writing for the first time think they bring their nouns and verbs to life by piling on adjectives and adverbs, that by describing a day as “hot, dry, bright, and dusty” they make it more vivid. Almost always is the opposite more true. Here are a few reasons why:
  • More is less. When a string of adjectives or adverbs is used, they detract from each other. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a reader to keep all those modifiers in his head by the time he gets to the noun or verb.
  • It can be demeaning to the reader when the writer fills in every last detail for him. It assumes he has no imagination of his own. As readers, we bring so many of our own associations to the table anyways, we’re going to substitute our won picture of a car, say, no matter how much effort a writer puts into describing it.
  • It is often preferable to leave things blank and force the reader to use his imagination—that way he makes the tect his own, becomes more fully engaged in the manuscript. He won’t set it down if its his.
  • Writers who overuse adjectives and adverbs tend to use common ones—usually ones they’ve heard used before—and the hackneyed result is immediately apparent. (It is rare to find truly unusual adjectives or adverbs in a manuscript.)
  • Adjectives and adverbs often, ironically, weaken their subjects. It is as if the writer were saying to the reader, “This noun (or verb) is not strong enough to stand on its own, so I will modify it (or build it up) with a few adjectives or adverbs.”
  • SOUND:
  • “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”
  • –William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style
  • The discussion on sound delves deeper than what we’ve discussed before. While typos, adjectives, and adverbs can be detected by agents and editors at a surface glance, we now enter a level where we give the manuscript more than a surface read.
  • The is a sound to prose. Writing is not just about getting a story across, but also –if not mainly—about how you get there. Prose can be technically correct but rhythmically unpleasant.
  • Sound=Rhythm
  • On the most basic level, sound problems arise out of simple grammatical mistakes in sentence construction. Poorly constructed sentences will seem to a lay reader to make no sense. You may read a sentence repeatedly and still not get it.
  • The underlying cause often lies in how sentences are divided. The misuse of commas, periods, colons, semicolons, dashes, and parentheses can lead to confusion.
  • COMPARISON:
  • Analogy (n) A likeness between things when the things are otherwise entirely different.
  • Simile (n) The likening of two things, generally by using the words “like” or “as,” which, however different, have some strong point of resemblance. A poetic or imaginative comparison.
  • Metaphor (n) A comparison is implied but not formally expressed. A short simile.
  • A picture is worth a thousand words, and when you use a comparison (meaning a simile or metaphor), you draw a picture, often with the goal of helping the reader grasp a difficult idea.
  • While the benefits of comparison for the skilled writer can be huge, the consequences of badly worded comparisons for a lesser writer can be disastrous. You must remember that when you use comparison, you tell a reader to stop. You draw attention to a particular idea, and if it is not apt, you’ll draw magnified attention to your imprecision.
  • Part Two:
  • -Dialogue
  • Part Three: The Bigger Picture
  • -Showing vs. Telling
  • -Viewpoint and Narration (Orson Scott Card’s CHARACTER AND VIEWPOINT)
  • -Characterization
  • -Hooks
  • -Subtlety
  • -Tone
  • -Focus
  • -Setting
  • -Pacing and Progression
  • DIALOGUE:
  • On our path to rejecting the manuscript, dialogue should, in truth, come first, as dialogue reveals the skill of a writer.
  • Dialogue is a powerful tool, and it is prey to a thousand different ailments:
  • Appearance
  • Commonplace
  • Informative
  • Melodramatic “Hollywood” dialogue
  • Hard to follow