Jefferson Scott

So this is a book that focuses on the beginning of your novel. I don’t have any hard evidence, but it does seem like that’s a keystone in getting published. I’ve never heard of slushkillers starting at a random point in the manuscript for the yay-or-nay vote.

I’d say this is a useful book. The amount read per item of information learned ratio wasn’t great–lots of writing books talk about beginnings at length–but there are some key things to know. And as usual, grains of salt are show more recommended as a side dish. Because if you do come up with something that ticks all the boxes of a good first 13,000 words, it’s going to be… pretty boring, I imagine. I’m rather fortunate in that I usually know how a book should begin. Whether that’s the way editors/agents want it, whether it’s the best way or most attractive way, not so sure.

It’s not a slog to read at least. It’s enjoyable and not too long. There is padding, like “why you should want the beginning to be great” and “the do nots of beginnings” that don’t help you to actually do. If you condensed it to the actual helpful content, it would be as big as a pamphlet. Of course, that’s true of any book. So yeah, I’d say writers should pick this up. I don’t know if it’ll increase your chances of being published, but it couldn’t hurt. show less

This book is sort of three shorter works bound together under one title. In the first part, Gerke lists what feels like just about every modern rule of writing out there. For each one he describes the pros and cons, gives his own opinion of it, and offers suggestions on how to get around "gatekeepers"—editors, agents, publishers, etc.—who will judge your book based on whether or not you followed it. In the second part, he looks at some of the brain science involved in reading, and in the show more third part, he discusses some of the classic storytelling structures and how you can apply them to your own writing.

I thought the book was interesting to read—I like Gerke's writing style and his explanations were clear—but I'm not sure how useful it would be. It's mostly because each part could have been a book, or more than one, in its own right, and the descriptions may be too brief unless you're already familiar with the material. It would probably be a lot to throw at someone as their first writing book, but then, it's not meant to be that. It would work as a review and summary of a lot of writing rules and instruction out there, though. show less

While I sometimes found the tone a little snarky, this book is very useful. It is essentially everything you will need to know about starting a novel in order to give it more potential to spring free of the slush pile. Of course that doesn't mean if you read this book you will write a brilliant novel, you still need to be able to tell a good story, but this will help you structure it. It made me think about my own writing and made clear to me some of the things I was doing poorly. An eye show more opener that really makes sense. show less

This is very much a beginner's book. It offered tips for specifically Nanowrimo participants on how to plan your novel before writing it and how to start the publication process once it is written, but offers very little in terms of actually doing the writing. There were a couple of good points, but most of the information you can easily find for free online.

He starts the book talking about how the only true rule to a good novel is to engage the reader, then goes on to impose many rules. He show more will say it doesn't need to be written in a particular way then describe exactly how he thinks it should be done as if it is the only correct way to write. It was incredibly easy to see his personal opinions and political/religious views as well.

In all, it wasn't all terrible information, as some of it was good, but it was executed poorly. show less