Monday, January 16, 2012

Guide to Publication: My Review of THE FIRST 50 PAGES by Jeff Gerke




Any fiction writer who aspires to be published someday has to become the kind of writer who keeps a reader engaged from page one. This is especially important when trying to get your manuscript read by an acquisitions editor of a publishing house. They read a lot of proposals, so you want yours to stand out. THE FIRST 50 PAGES by Jeff Gerke is the perfect resource for someone wanting to be a published novelist. Gerke shares what he knows about making the first fifty pages the best that they can be.

Gerke covers so many great things in this book such as connecting with your reader, creating a likable protagonist, using beats to ground dialogue, showing versus telling in your writing, three-act structure, and how to use a prologue. The first fifty pages of your story should be optimally designed to draw a reader in so that they will continue the journey with you until the end. Gerke shows how this starts with the very first line and the very first scene of your story. He shows how to introduce your characters and your hero's inner journey, as well as fleshing out the hero's normal story world to begin the story in.

THE FIRST 50 PAGES communicates a lot that I've already read before, but Gerke includes a lot great examples of what he's talking about from well-known movies and novels. I've also read a lot of other writing stuff from Gerke before, so it's familiar, and his advice has already been incredibly helpful in my own writing already. It's a great book that's very practical.

I received this book for free for review from Writers Digest Books

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