Les EdgertonRecensioni

Not really sure how to describe this book other than to saying is about the king of losers, who screws up everything he touches, and every scam he pulls until he hooks up with Cat, who is a hooker, and changes his luck, to some degree. Oh by the way this is a very funny book as well.

Lest you think I love everything I read, I frickin' hated this book. Written in a smarmy, sarcastic tone, it purports to be written to kids so they can learn how to cope with the variety of Little League coaches they may encounter. Rather than give practical advice, he does his best to "Dennis Miller" his way through all the possible scenarios a kid may face, which really boil down to two situations: The coach is coaching so he can make his son a star, or The coach is coaching because his dreams of playing in The Show were dashed, and he's determined to rectify that vicariously with you!

The book is one long tedious insult to everyone who loves baseball and anyone who has experienced an agenda-less coach who is there to enjoy the game and help the kids. And yeah, I took this book personally...that's what the author wanted. My response? You're outta here.

To a writer, something that they call “voice” simply provides a line of life. It’s the most essential part of getting a reader interested in reading more – and getting an editor interested in publishing the author. Edgerton’s method of developing voice is simply learning to be yourself while writing. This professional writing teacher teaches us his writing process – by studying how others write and then by listening to how he thinks.

He seems to spend a lot of his time teaching students inclined towards literature how to write. In this book, he often refers to the transgression of trying to imitate other authors instead of writing your own thoughts. He also talks of the transgression of the “Critic-Nag Dude” who criticizes one’s natural writing style. This internal critic tends to over-polish writing and is the stuff of piling rewrite upon rewrite.

As for himself, Edgerton’s writing voice is fairly loose and folksy. He does not have an overly academic or even succinct style. As is common today, he is pretty conversational. I’m not sure he has a ton to say to those, like myself, who have a more academic and analytical voice. Nonetheless, the central message of disregarding one’s own harsh thoughts ought to be accepted by everyone. Too many people spend their time in life trying to imitate others.

Edgerton also addresses writers of both fiction and non-fiction. Fiction writers must be authentic to themselves while imitating the voices of their characters. Their characters, however, are ultimately a creation of their soul. Non-fiction writers must learn to engender curiosity, wonder, and interest in the reader. The best way to do that is to be so with the subject matter at hand.

This book provides a relaxed read for those interested in the craft of writing. Instead of a technical work on how to enhance voice, reading it more reflects a therapy session – not on how to live but on how to cultivate authenticity, transparency, and honesty in writing. Those looking to unlock the mysteries of success and the universe will probably be disappointed. Those looking to improve a few things in their writing, however, will find many gems hidden in the grass.

I bought this book because author Chris Strayln said, in an Amazon review, that it revolutionized the way he wrote beginnings. So I got a sample of Strayln's book, This Time You Lose, and it was about the most exciting beginning I've ever read.

Well, Hooked didn't quite live up to that recommendation. My review meter alternated between 2 and 4 stars while I was reading.

In summary, he's got a few great ideas, but he goes over them and over them. He could have gotten his points across in about 40 pages.

He also keeps giving examples, and talking about how great they are. Some are, some aren't. For example, from "What's Not to Enjoy":

"A few days before Thanksgiving I get a terrific recipe from the Turkey Hotline Lady while Dyna and I make love."

He then says "What a superb opening! Who could possibly resist reading on?"

Me. I could resist. He gushes about a lot of these, and often tries to fit the opening to his ideas even if the match isn't that close.

Finally, the writing was often bad. Here's an example from page 207:

"The truth is, many books are getting lost in the mix, and this is largely due to the fact that there are still writers churning out a product written in a style and with a structure my son Mike would most likely describe as being 'So five minutes ago.'"

This is from a book on how to write. "The truth is" "Largely due to the fact that." Sheesh.

Most beginning writers could change this to:

"Many books fail because of their antiquated style and structure."

But, as I said, there are good ideas, and I made changes to my opening based on his suggestions. Those changes improved my book. Just be prepared for a long slog.

No stars as I couldn't get into it. Will try again. Next month.

Absolutely brilliant insight into what makes mainstream/commercial fiction work, includes lots of examples.

Possibly the most important book you'll read about writing.

Most writers would agree the beginning of a story is the most important part. That's where the reader gets "hooked" and continues read on or abandons the book.

In Les Edgerton's book, Hooked - Write fiction that grabs the reader at page one and never lets them go he describes in broad strokes, fine strokes and with examples how to achieve what his subtitle proclaims.

According to Edgerton, you can't write the opening until you know in significant detail who your protagonist is and what the story is about.

To do this you must first identify your hero or heroine's "storyworthy problem", that would be the problem that is just below the surface and is gradually revealed as the story unfolds. From that discovery, and Edgerton urges you to drill deep to find out what's really bugging your protagonist, comes the inciting incident.

This is where the story begins, the moment where the status quo is upset and the protagonist sets about to resolve it. The inciting incident presents the first indications of the bigger issue, the storyworthy problem.

Don't start with backstory - bringing the reader up to date on your protagonist's life, start with "trouble" - an incident presented in an action filled scene that incites your protagonist and reader to carry on to resolution.

A provocative opening sentence, an exciting inciting incident giving a glimpse at the storyworthy problem and you're on your way.

Complicated? Maybe, but Edgerton hammers it home again and again (with examples).

Hooked may very well be the most important book you'll read about writing. Edgerton writes in non-academic, easy to understand language, includes entertaining examples and even gives agents and editors the last word on the most common mistakes made in the manuscripts they see and, you guessed it, a bad beginning ranks right up there.

Edgerton's prescription on how to come up with a good story opening is actually more than that, a lot more. It's the formula for a sound story structure.

The focus of this book is on the first paragraph, scene or chapter of a novel or short story, and how important it is to get it right. To grab the attention of an editor, or indeed a reader in a shop, the first page must hook them and make them want to keep turning pages.

The author establishes the difference between a ‘story-worthy’ problem and an opening problem. There are some interesting points about plot development, and the importance of solving an initial difficulty only to find oneself in a new one.

My only slight frustration is that the books cited as examples were mostly ones I’d never heard of, many of them in the thriller or men’s fiction genres. Not unreasonable when the writer is a man, but the kind of books I enjoy writing, often don’t seem to follow this kind of pattern.

I may well dip into it again, and would recommend it to anyone starting out on fiction writing.

Not really sure how to describe this book other than to saying is about the king of losers, who screws up everything he touches, and every scam he pulls until he hooks up with Cat, who is a hooker, and changes his luck, to some degree. Oh by the way this is a very funny book as well.

On the back cover of this is the line that dared me to buy this book: “…no matter how depraved a person appears to be, there might still exist a spark of humanity.”

Pfft, I thought. So he thinks he’s figured out how to make a rapist appear human to me? I’ll take that challenge.

In “The Rapist” Les Edgerton takes the reader deep inside the disturbing mind of Truman Pinter. The clincher, or the hook that reels you into this story, is the uncertainty as to whether or not Pinter is responsible for the crime he’s convicted of. In simpler terms: while you may not doubt his guilt, you’re uncertain as to whether he deserves his punishment.

Aside from his tight grasp of the craft, what really impressed me about Edgerton is that this story took balls to write. The themes and ideas in this book are the very things that make the bleeding hearts that are always eager to take offense practically orgasmic in their shit losing. But this story is not about offending people. It’s not about taking a voyeuristic trip inside the mind of a sicko. It’s not about exploiting the crimes he committed. In my opinion “The Rapist” is about making you look inward. It challenges your personal morals and beliefs on many levels, and forces you to acknowledge that while everyone does bad things, some worse than others, we’re all human. We all share feelings, fears, thoughts and biases with even the lowest criminal. That fact is so disturbing and unpleasant that we choose to ignore it. After all, if we embrace such things, we must also concede that it’s possible for such darkness to lurk inside all of us.

Full review to come next week on OnFictionWriting.com.

After reading and loving THE RAPIST, I was beyond excited to dig into this book. THE BITCH is an uncomfortable read, and I haven’t encountered that in a while. The pacing is excellent and the writing is almost flawless in my opinion. The care that Edgerton has obviously taken with his character development and plotting can’t be described. I highly recommend THE BITCH. The story and its players will stay with you long after you reach THE END.

Full review to follow on www.onfictionwriting.com.

Which comes first, voice or craft?

In Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing, author Les Edgerton begins by blaming all the English teachers you had through elementary and secondary school for destroying your original voice.

Edgerton believes if you were allowed to just write “naturally”, not like how you were told to write and not like how you think a “writer” should write you’d have your original voice.

I thought learning how to write came first and voice came after that, and since it was all those English teachers who taught me how to write, including punctuation and grammar, I don’t think they’re really to blame if you can’t find your writing voice.

It appears the only people who are anxious about finding “their writing voice” are those who don’t write well. I advance the concept that once you learn how to write, and I mean actually put in those 10,000 hours to become reasonably adept at the craft, voice comes naturally.

And you know what? I think Edgerton believes that as well, because once I got past the idea this book was about magically finding your voice, I realized it was a book about how to write, and a solid one at that, and written in an easy, kind of folksy, non academic voice.

Edgerton has used the angst novice writers have about finding their voice as “a hook”, or as I use to explain to my sales staff, the USP – Unique Selling Proposition. This is to differentiate his “how to” book from all the rest.

And it worked, at least on me.

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I really wanted to give this 5 stars, because it is full of gems. There is stuff in here that I believe will change the way I go about writing forever. It's mostly geared toward the beginning, but I've learned a lot about the middle in the process. Beginnings are so important, however, that I'm glad there's a book dedicated solely to that. The reason I didn't give it more than 4 stars? Because the best part of that book was... you guessed it, the beginning.

Quite frankly I don't get the reviews this book got. Yes, I put it under "abandoned" books, but not because I fully dropped it, rather because I didn't read it in it's entirety and instead ended up skimming ahead.

Why?

First the good: Every so often, you might find some sound advice or tips. But you have to look hard.

Now the bad: The book is repetitive and unnecessarily long. The author uses a lot of examples from his own writing (which I don't find good at all). Every time he gives an example line he wonders "who wouldn't read on?" like it's a masterpiece; not a single time did I answer "me" to that - all those opening hooks (which by the way did not seem to match at all with any of the things he said they should have to be good) were terrible to me, and if I truly were to judge those books by their opening line, I would have quit most of them before giving them a single chance.

Considering all those problems made me lose faith in the author, I could not take what few, far in between tips I found might have been of use, as serious.

Also, one of these two books could have used a different cover...

[bc:Hooked|2230444|Hooked|Jane May|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266655183s/2230444.jpg|2236244] [bc:Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go|414771|Hooked Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go|Les Edgerton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1408313466s/414771.jpg|403983]

And given the publication dates, I'm thinking it should have been this one.

Remember the first time you went fishing? You tagged along with Daddy or Grampa or some kid bigger’n you, and there you were with a real pole and a real line and a real hook, and you were gonna catch something, by golly, and you did — seaweed.
In Hooked, Les Edgerton shows aspiring authors how to land the big one — a full reading by an agent or editor. You bait your hook with a strong opening that pulls the reader right into the action — right where the trouble begins. You set your hook with characters whose deeds evoke sympathy and empathy, and just enough setup and back story for a fascinating setting. Then you play the reader with active scenes and dialogue that show your characters’ struggles to get out of trouble, until the reader is dying to jump into your landing net and find out how it all ends.
Edgerton’s writing style is more concise than mine — probably because he writes fast-paced stuff like short stories and screenplays — but he did help me tighten up my first foray into writing fiction, and I read him again when it was time to edit my finished novel. I enjoyed reading an opening scene he set in Fort Wayne, and I liked his conversational tone. I think you’ll like him, too — even if your writing genre is carefully crafted grocery lists — because if you love books, Les Edgerton will give you a greater appreciation for the well-turned phrases that get you Hooked.

This book is simply genius. Genius to the point that I find it trying to even write a review worthy enough to describe said genius. I knew Les Edgerton was good, but DANG! This book demonstrated his abilities on a whole other level.

I won’t lie. When I saw the title of the book there was a little apprehension on my part to make the purchase. The cover is quite troubling, and the title….well I think that speaks for itself. However, being a big Edgerton fan, I knew I had to take the plunge. I am damn happy I did!

The protagonist, Truman Pinter, is a rapist, sociopath, and essentially a guy you will absolutely despise. Edgerton writes this character in way that should be studied by future and current authors. In fact, after reading the book, I am not at all surprised Les writes self-help books on the craft of writing.

The Rapist is a must read book. It’s flawlessly written, and the ending will leave you speechless.

If you suffer from Explaineritis when you write your opening lines, this book will cure you. Edgerton not only drives home the point that you must have an attention-grabbing opening, he shows how having this can help you more easily write the rest of the story. This is a terrific book on the craft of writing.

Elizabeth has a double in the mirror who convinces her to trade places. But when she does, the mirror double ("Liz") wreaks havoc on Elizabeth's life. Soon Elizabeth finds herself trapped in Mirror World, forced into a battle of the wits with the girl who made it out and is ruining her life. This is a tight read that will have you wondering if Elizabeth will ever make it out of the mirror, and if she does, how will she get her life back? Edgerton keeps things light with a lot of great one-liners and hyperbole in all the right places, all without losing a beat of suspense. A great read for teens and adults alike.

Excellent short stories by a writer who really deserves more attention. Still mulling over the essay at the end ...

If you want a real crime story, this is for you. Like Ed Bunker before him, Les Edgerton knows of what he writes, and he writes it damn well. Jake's story is pure noir: out of prison, he's married, has a business he's starting, and everything looks great until it all turns to shit when his cellie comes asking to have a favor repaid. And as you'd expect, it keeps getting worse. And worse. And always believable, but even worse!
With Jake we're not given a hero who always makes the right decision. Driven by mortal fear of "The Bitch," or life imprisonment as a "Habitual offender," he is forced into more and more horrible dilemmas as his pregnant wife and criminal past collide in a scheme to rob a diamond merchant. Great reading with characters who pop off the page with a realism I can confirm. A dozen years at the port, working with shady jewelers and growing up in a town peppered with loudmouth small-time mobsters, this story is the real deal and a gripping read.

Free on Kindle. Spoilers. I gave up.

Overall not heinous, but not outstanding either. Too many mistakes, repetitions and cookie-cutter situations for that. I liken it to a low-budget action movie or an 80s TV series like The A-team. Watchable, but not something you remember for long.

My notes while reading the (free) ebook -

p. 39 "Grady put up his hand. His eyes became dark slits." - I thought he only had the one. Seriously, Edgerton went through a lot of detail and agony over the lost eye that caused Grady early retirement from the force. Not to mention the eschewing of the glass eye for the pirate patch. Then this? Ugh.

Random waitress in a random diner notices minute detail in a random customer. Weird.

Originally this was written in the mid-1990s I think, but has been updated and re-written several times. Still, on one occasion Grady has to go hunting for a map in gas stations. Eh, I don't know. I guess it's feasible, but in the age of smart-phones (which get screen time later) it seems like sloppy editing/revising.

The main 3 characters all get big info-dumps of backstory. CJ's goes on and on. Sure it's good to know how not-quite-a-nice-guy he is, but please, all at once? You've got more time with the character than just that one scene; piece it out for heaven's sake. Oh and for a bank president, he's got an awful lot of free time and can just do stuff without much attention/oversight. Strange.

What's with the Animal Cops soliloquy about illegal monkeys? Irritating and distracting. Should have been edited out.

There's a lot of silly obfuscation of people's identities that just shouldn't be there considering the person is specifically identified in just a few sentences. Like two cops did this and a Cuban-American did that...so what if you're not keeping the anonymity for a while. It was a style choice I didn't like.

The flashback fight between Jack and Grady was hilarious. Has Edgerton ever had a fight with anyone? NO ONE fights like that. In nice complete sentences with plenty of opportunity to explain to the other person why you're being such a jerk and plenty of time to get in your accusations and insults. No one interrupts or yells. OMG it was funny.

Awkward language at times, like word repetitions in the same sentence and stuff like "the killer of his brother". Eh, it wasn't all like this, but a lot of it was pretty choppy and unpolished.

OK, enough already! Reader is a genius. Super-smart. Super-genius even. Oy, that got old. Everyone who met the guy went off about how brilliant he was and what an ultra-criminal he must be. Based on what? Grady jumps to this conclusion after about a 2-minute conversation with a bartender. It's crazy. And it got beaten to death. Maybe I'm not a super-genius, but I don't have the memory of a goldfish either. Reader might though since he apparently saw Grady after he'd assumed his goons had killed him, but in the next long internal monologue; no Grady on his mind even though he's supposed to be paranoid, an all-potentials planner and a super-genius.

Role reversal! In the end it's Grady who monologues about how put-upon he's been in his life, how following his hallowed father's advice to stay on the straight an narrow got him nothing. Worse than nothing; got him handicapped and broke. All justification to steal the drug money and run. All Reader does is grunt and spew invective.

Eeek. I realize I didn't note anything positive. Here goes.

I liked Whitney despite her name and strange dialogue. The sex scene wasn't too bad, but the insta-romance was kind of annoying. Especially Grady's mooning. The relationship between him and his brother was pretty well done, albeit he seemed to be hung up on Jack's genius IQ, too. It pushed the self-deprecation angle a bit hard, but was even-handed.

Sally and Veronica were pretty fun and wicked handy to have around. Especially the string-pulling and shotgun wielding not just the excellent bar hangout. Those things rang a bit truer when it comes to this kind of novel than did Grady's "investigation" which was nothing but a series of lucky breaks and huge, huge assumptions. Lots of guessing going on and little actual deduction. Everything seemed to be an epiphany out of a clear blue sky. Enjoyable though, in an A-team kind of way.

A book about beginnings, how to plan and execute a great start to your novel. There's a lot of good advice here. But it's very wordy, perhaps twice as long as it needed to be, and many of the examples of amazing beginnings don't seem to "hook" the way the author advertises. This is a useful book to skim.½

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Les Edgerton at Phoenix College for the Apr. 17, 2010, Microburst mini creative writing conference. The conference was an intersection of his craft book, Hooked, and a structural film analysis of Thelma & Louise.

In Hooked, Edgerton examines the elements necessary for a great opening in modern literature. He stresses that modern audiences no longer want to immerse themselves in fifteen or twenty pages of setting and back story before meeting the characters and their current dilemmas. Edgerton incorporates many literary and film examples to clearly demonstrate how to do things right. Thelma & Louise is one of his favorite examples, and one that many readers have experienced, making it a good common ground for examining a great opening.

At the Microburst conference, participants viewed the entire Thelma & Louise film, while Edgerton frequently paused and explained the structural elements that worked, much as he laid them out in Hooked. Because we watched the entire film, the audience listened to structural analysis even beyond that in Hooked, because Hooked only looks at literary openings.

It was refreshing to see that the author said in person, what he said in the book, in equally understandable language, with useful examples. I felt like I learned a thing or two reading Hooked before the conference, and a live lecture with Edgerton only reinforced my appreciation of his insight and clear instruction.

I would recommend Hooked to any writer looking to update his/her opening strategies. And if you want more Edgerton, he will be teaching two online courses for Phoenix College: CRW 271 in summer and CRW 272 in fall 2010.

Instructive, humorous and filled with wisdom. A must-have for every aspiring author.