South Flatland Fiction

The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Slush Pile by Noah Lukeman. New York: Fireside, 2000. Trade paperback. 207 pages. $11.00.

If your manuscript has been rejected and you’re wondering why, Noah Lukeman’s book may help you recognize the problems in your writing and fix them.

Noah Lukeman brings his current experience as a literary agent and his prior experiences as an editor to The First Five Pages. Since agents and editors usually read manuscripts on nights and weekends, they are looking for a reason not to read any more of a manuscript than necessary.

In the lst section, “Preliminary Problems,” Lukeman discusses the things that will get a book rejected immediately. The first of these is presentation, how the manuscript looks and whether it has been sent to the right editor. Other preliminary problems include the overuse of adjectives and adverbs, the sound of the manuscript, how effectively the writer uses comparisons, and the writer’s style.

If a manuscript survives the examination of preliminary problems, dialogue is the next consideration and is the subject of the 2nd section of the book. An agent or editor may begin the evaluation of the dialogue without reading a word of it. There is obviously too much if the characters talk for pages without a break. On the other hand, if several pages are turned and there is no dialogue, there is not enough. Other dialogue problems include the “Hi, how are you?” variety which Lukeman dubs commonplace, informative dialogue which involves a conversation for the sole purpose of informing the reader of things both characters already know, melodramatic dialogue, and hard to follow exchanges.

The 3rd section of The First Five Pages is called “The Bigger Picture.” Lukeman says 99 percent of all manuscripts don’t make it this far. If yours does, then it still has several hurdles in the path of its acceptance. They include showing vs. telling, viewpoint and narration, characterization, subtlety, setting, hooks, tone, focus, and pacing and progression.

Most of the chapters are divided into sections, lst, showing the problem, then discussing the solution. This is followed with examples of bad writing. Next, Lukeman discusses why the examples don’t work and ends the chapters with exercises to help the writer evaluate and repair his manuscript. While Lukeman does an excellent job of giving examples of bad writing, it would have been helpful if he had provided revisions of his examples. He would also have done well to remember his admonitions on presentation and hired a proofreader to eliminate the grammatical errors that were scattered throughout the book. Otherwise, the organization is effective and easy to follow, and the exercises should be useful to writers of many genres, not just fiction.

This book is available from all the usual bookstore sources, as well as for checkout at the Wichita Public Library. To see a sample chapter and read more reviews, visit the author’s web site at www.lukeman.com/thefirstfivepages/.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Hazel Hart teaches an online English composition course for Butler County Community College, sells collectible paperbacks through her online bookstore, and writes in her spare time. She has won awards for her fiction and poetry from Writer's Journal, Byline, Kansas Voices, the Kansas Writers Association and the National Writers Club. Her work has been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Unity, and several small literary magazines.

While living in Colorado, Hazel co-edited Array, a small literary magazine, which contained poetry, short stories, and personal essays. She is currently developing a Fundamentals of English course for BCCC and working on a third novel.