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angelpearacolyte's review against another edition
4.0
Decent book on the basics of the first 50 pages. Would've liked to see a lot more references to actual novels though, and not 90% movie references.
thewallflower00's review against another edition
3.0
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 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.
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 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.
lissajean7's review
3.0
This book is a solid 3.5 stars for me. I really wish goodreads had that option. Anyway, Gerke's writing is extremely accessible and easy to read. His tone is light, and the information he provides is clear. I was also pleasantly surprised to know most of his examples. However, most of his examples are movies (which I know is the in-thing now). I feel that looking at what movies are doing is important, but not discussing how the visual medium is different from the written medium is selling books short. They are different forms of media, and should be treated as such. There are strengths and weaknesses to both. There is a lot of good information in here, so I recommend it, but there are also things I just plain disagree with.
bookishwendy's review
3.0
A pretty good guide for those setting out to tell "cinematic" 3-act stories that are commercially viable. It's more concerned with storytelling than actual writing--the author uses examples of film more than novels--and could be just as useful to an aspiring screenwriter. While I don't agree that books should be utterly filmic--the medium of the novel allows the writer to plumb the internal lives of characters in ways a screen can never capture--visualizing scenes to avoid too much telling can be a helpful exercise. I liked the way character motivation was broken down and learned a few new techniques, but on the whole I'd seen most of this before (to be fair, I've read a lot of these guides). I'd recommend this to writers of commercial fiction who are starting to think about agents/publishers, but for more advanced techniques and tips for bridging literary and commercial fiction, I'd recommend [b:The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great|6376896|The Fire in Fiction Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great|Donald Maass|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408308457s/6376896.jpg|6564585].
jenjuxtapose's review
5.0
Interesting read. Helped me tweak and polish the first two chapters of my manuscript to send off as a portfolio for a creative writing program, and gave me valuable information that I'll keep with me while continuing my writing. There are a few things I didn't agree with, but writing is very subjective.
graecoltraine's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.0
Like... it's fine. It's an alright book. The thing is, almost all of the information in the book is stuff that could just as easily (and more quickly!) be learned by going digging around videos on youtube pertaining to writing advice.
Beyond that, half of the book is examples, but not even really useful examples--the author, apparently, really really enjoys movies and does not enjoy books, as made clear by the fact that a solid 75% of all examples used in this book are talking about movies (which is fine, if not for the fact that this is apparently a craft book on novel writing, rather than screenplays), and of the remaining 25%, 20% of that is books that have been adapted into movies.
On the extremely rare occasion that he brought up a book that had not been a movie, it was, wait for it: one of his own novels. I counted exactly two novels referenced in this book that were not written by the author or adapted into movies, and quite honestly, not only was it alienating as a reader who does not play well with audiovisual mediums and is setting out to write something with words on paper, rather than actors on a screen, but I'm not entirely convinced that the author reads any books other than his own, and as someone who firmly believes that frequent and varied reading is absolutely necessary in order to write well, I don't really want to trust advice from someone who has only exemplified that he watches an awful lot of movies.
This book may be useful for you if you haven't already done a fair amount of craft research or you're just starting out with writing. It may also be interesting or a good read if you like movies. However, as a reader who's already done this kind of research previously, I had really been hoping for new information, or at least old information presented in ways that were understandable to me, and personally, movie references are not that.
Beyond that, half of the book is examples, but not even really useful examples--the author, apparently, really really enjoys movies and does not enjoy books, as made clear by the fact that a solid 75% of all examples used in this book are talking about movies (which is fine, if not for the fact that this is apparently a craft book on novel writing, rather than screenplays), and of the remaining 25%, 20% of that is books that have been adapted into movies.
On the extremely rare occasion that he brought up a book that had not been a movie, it was, wait for it: one of his own novels. I counted exactly two novels referenced in this book that were not written by the author or adapted into movies, and quite honestly, not only was it alienating as a reader who does not play well with audiovisual mediums and is setting out to write something with words on paper, rather than actors on a screen, but I'm not entirely convinced that the author reads any books other than his own, and as someone who firmly believes that frequent and varied reading is absolutely necessary in order to write well, I don't really want to trust advice from someone who has only exemplified that he watches an awful lot of movies.
This book may be useful for you if you haven't already done a fair amount of craft research or you're just starting out with writing. It may also be interesting or a good read if you like movies. However, as a reader who's already done this kind of research previously, I had really been hoping for new information, or at least old information presented in ways that were understandable to me, and personally, movie references are not that.
selfwinding's review
4.0
Lots of good reminders and insight into what tasks need to be complete within the first 50 pages of a novel. I like the way this breaks down each task and explains some commonly heard advice in slightly different ways, thus providing a different approach and a different way to contextualize what I "know" needs to happen.
kbayko's review against another edition
5.0
Extremely helpful! An absolute must read for those starting their novel.