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The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile QUOTES

The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile QUOTES

1 " The ultimate message of this book, though, is not that 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: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile

2 " Note how patronized you feel as a reader. Does this writer think we’re in third grade? Does he think his points are that hard to grasp? "

― Noah Lukeman , The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile

3 " When an editor reads, he is not just reading but breaking sentences into fragments, worrying if the first half should be replaced with the second, if the middle fragment should be switched with the first. The better editors worry if entire sentences should be switched within paragraphs; great editors keep entire paragraphs—even pages—in their head and worry if these might be switched. Truly great editors can keep an entire book in their head and easily ponder the switching of any word to any place. They’ll remember an echo across three hundred pages. If they’re professional, they’ll be able to keep ten such manuscripts in their head at once. And if you’re the writer, and you call them a year later and ask about a detail, even though they’ve read five thousand manuscripts since then, they’ll remember yours without a pause. "

― Noah Lukeman , The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile