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From Publishers Weekly
Lukeman's second book on writing after 2000's The First Five Pages (a third volume on dialogue is still to come) discusses the craft of writing well-plotted fiction. Lukeman, a literary agent, rallies against the lazy and mundane that cross his desk in the form of 50,000 manuscripts submitted in the last five years. Initially, at least, he is less concerned with artfulness than the simple need to make the book compelling beyond the first few pages. He asserts that the foundation (and often the first casualty) of a book is character, and accordingly, Lukeman dedicates the first two chapters to an exhaustive list of questions a writer should ask about the "outer" and "inner" life of each character. He encourages a Dr. Frankenstein-like approach to creating realistic fictional characters: devising them with the intention of bending them to the writer's own will, but at the same time investing them with enough life that they are capable of making their own way in the world and ultimately surprising their creator. A third chapter called "Applied Characterization" discusses how to use this knowledge to form a plot. The remaining five chapters cover different aspects of plotting: "The Journey," "Suspense," "Conflict," "Context" and "Transcendency." Lukeman's advice is practical and often entails multiple, time-consuming steps without a hint of the flakiness that creeps into many writing guides. The closest he ever gets to sounding like a guru is when he sagely stresses, "Real life is the best teacher." Though Lukeman works with books, he wisely asserts that the observations in this volume are applicable to all types of imaginary writing, from film to poetry. Indeed, it is a worthy addition to any narrative writer's reference shelf.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
In this follow-up to the author's successful First Five Pages (2000), literary agent Lukeman focuses on the mechanics of storytelling. He introduces budding writers to the techniques of characterization (ask yourself questions about the people you've created), the various ways of generating suspense (danger, a ticking clock), and the importance of conflict. He writes from experience: he's read, he tells us, more than 50,000 manuscripts in the past half decade. Curiously, he mostly uses movies to illustrate his points, on the assumption that more of his readers will recognize his references that way. (This premise--that would-be writers won't be familiar with literary references--may strike some as slightly insulting, unintentional though it may be.) All in all, though, this is a crisply written, nicely detailed examination of the art of storytelling. Beginning writers will find plenty of practical tips and useful advice in its pages. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
You may have been in a situation-perhaps in a government office-where you've been asked for your mother's social security number, your father's place of birth, and realized, in a horrific flash, that you don't really know the people you think you know best in the world. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
You may have been in a situation-perhaps in a government office-where you've been asked for your mother's social security number, your father's place of birth, and realized, in a horrific flash, that you don't really know the people you think you know best in the world. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A list of questions over and over and overand....,
By
This review is from: The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life (Paperback)
I can't help but feel that I was deceived by some of the other reviews of this book. Helpful they said. Great guide they said. I am not a well-published writer, but I found little in this book helpful. The first half is composed of mostly questions to ask yourself, mostly about your characters. How does the character treat other characters? Who does he choose to spend time with? Does he have a disfiguring disease? Perhaps these questions could be useful in inventing a character to base a story off of or in developing characters as a beginning writer, but not to an experienced and reasonably-competent writer trying to flesh out an already existing idea. Anyone who reads regularly will know most of this information already. It can help inspire new ideas though. The exercises aren't terrible, though they really just recap the rest of the writing. He seems to push conflict and tension over the top. He actually recommends cliches. For instance, if a character has to cross a river in order to continue journeying with his colleagues, Lukeman recommends that the story migt benefit if the river has a rushing current AND is full of man-eating crocodiles AND the character is being chased by an army AND 90% of the people who try to cross die. A story full of super-high tension and rediculous obstacles and conflicts is not my idea of good writing. It's more like the formula for a Hollywood blockbuster for testosterone junkies too pumped-up to recognize the difference between plot and situational window dressing. Jeopardy isn't jeopardy unless we believe he might not succeed. Even the title is misleading. This book is about how to start writing a story, not how tho thicken the plot. I liked "The First Five Pages" and did find that helpful for revising stories, especially the early parts. Lukeman just dropped the ball on this one.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book to keep on your reference shelf!,
By Brigitte Simone (Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful book. It forces me to dissect and scrutinize my work as I have never before thought possible. It makes me delve deeper into the psyche of my characters, each element of each paragraph, and the story as a whole.It's strange because many of the notions mentioned in the book I feel I already understood as a writer; however Mr. Lukeman takes each of these notions to pieces and leaves me with a clearer understanding as to what exactly I was trying to achieve, and why. It's as though you are walking through your own house at night with no lights on, and suddenly there is light. You knew where everything was, but now all is clearer and you can see all the little details and things you might not have thought of, e.g., a child left a toy on the floor that you could have tripped on... The notions in this book make me feel more in control of my work. There are still just as many choices to make, but being able to better analyse and understand the reasons and consequences regarding each choice makes everything much more pleasant and reassuring. That being said, I have noticed that some of the readers are missing the BIG idea of this book. Yes, Mr. Lukeman offers many ideas, but if you're intelligent enough and have enough imagination you'll understand that you don't need to use them all. They are EXAMPLES to help you build your own work. You get to make the final choices - and as far as I am concerned, the more the merrier! Btw, a cliché, by definition, is a phrase or idea that is boring because people use it a lot and it is no longer original Hence, the "clichés" in this book are there to give clear and simple EXAMPLES of the point Mr. Lukeman is trying to make, not to be used literally. (If the phrase or idea is boring because people use it a lot, then chances are more people will understand the point one tries to make, right?) The author, in my opinion, assumes you will understand this. I have.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Helped Me "See" My Characters Better,
By
This review is from: The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life (Paperback)
To some extent, I have to agree with Scott of Cookeville. This book's main feature is its two chapters of questions you can ask about your characters in order to better flesh them out. (In my humble opinion, these questionnaires are simply the best I've ever seen in a writing book. And, as Scott mentions, the rest of the book is really about how to START a story rather than how to "thicken the plot".But since that's my need right now, I'm giving this book 4 stars.On the other hand, I disagree with Scott's comments about the cliched suspense stuff. My read of that paragraph (p. 123 in the hardbound edition or see Scott's review below) is that Lukeman is merely giving an example of increasing danger, one of a variety of ways to increase suspense. In the start of the chapter, Lukeman also says, "One can have undeveloped characters... and a weak plot, but if suspense exists, an audience will often stay with the work." On the other hand, though, he points out that the suspense needs to arise from the characters and the situation itself, and should not be used as "a means in and of itself". Given that caveat, it hardly seems to me that Lukeman is recommending the (cartoonish) addition of crocodiles, roaring rapids and enemy soldiers patrolling the opposite banks just for the sake of a suspenseful river crossing.
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