"The ultimate message of this book, though, is not that you should strive for publication, but that you should become devoted to the craft of writing, for its own sake. Ask yourself what you would do if you knew you would never be published. Would you still write? If you are truly writing for the art of it, the answer will be yes. And then, every word is a victory."-- Noah Lukeman, The First Five Pages.
In memorium of the book, consumer reviewer RLoughran says, "I believe that superior writing will, eventually, be recognized and published. Agonizing over publishers or agents or sales of books you have in print is hell; real writers are in it for the writing. The First Five Pages reminded me that if I control what I can--working at writing a superior book--I have a chance at publication."
Isn't this message inspiring? I have not read this book yet, but I have attended a class that was based around some of its principles, and I have heard many good things about it. Noah Lukeman is a literary agent in NY and he says the outstanding quality of your book must be apparent in the first five pages. Sounds like a great read... I can't wait!
I'm going to quote it again, just because I love it so much:
"ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOU WOULD DO IF YOU KNEW YOU WOULD NEVER BE PUBLISHED. WOULD YOU STILL WRITE? IF YOU ARE TRULY WRITING FOR THE ART OF IT, THE ANSWER WILL BE YES. AND THEN, EVERY WORD IS A VICTORY."
I had high hopes for that book when I checked it out, but it ended up being mostly more of the same advice I'd read in half a dozen other books. And some of the "rules" are overgenralizations. (Seriously? We can't ever use adjectives or adverbs? So our characters can't smile menacingly/comfortingly/slyly, they should just smile? And they should have "eyes" rather than "blue eyes" or "brown eyes"? Please. What people mean to say is, "Too many adjectives and adverbs are overkill, and always make sure they're not redundant [green grass, quickly ran] or a weak way of phrasing something one word can do better [walked purposefully = marched, strode]." Obviously I could go on; that one's a pet peeve.)
ReplyDeleteOh, that's disappointing to hear. Thanks for the feedback, Jordan. I've heard some good things about this book, and I really like what I've heard...
ReplyDelete(I do really like that quote.) :)
...but maybe it's not all that I'm hoping it will be.
Yes, strive to excel at writing for the sake of excelling, but do also work at getting published! I want to read your books!
ReplyDeleteAnd getting published is an art too. So much to learn! I love this business.
That last quote has really hit home to me recently. My husband thinks writing should be profitable. I feel that way too, but our ideas of profitable are way different. He wants to be able to break it down by an hourly figure. "Say you publish your children's book, would you make about $1 an hour for all the time you put into it?" I laughed right out loud. Apparently I haven't educated him on the realities of book publishing, because not only are we talking about the time writing the book, we are also talking about the time that will be needed to market it. I plan on visiting schools to generate orders of any children's books I write. So I have to ask myself, why do I want to put all this time into something that will probably be minimally profitable if at all? Because I need words. I need to write them, I need to think them, I need to say them, I need to hear them. Words are more important to me than I thought.
ReplyDelete