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Five Minutes to Success: Master the Craft of Writing
How long does it take to become a better writer?
Just five minutes.
These five-minute chapters are each designed to help you master an aspect of the writers’ craft. From prewriting and character development through plotting, editing, proofreading, and on to the options available in publishing, we will help you with every step of your writing journey. No matter where you are in your process, there is something you can learn that will make your writing stronger.
The path from writer to author is an obstacle course of pitfalls and secret rules. Five Minutes to Success promises to help you overcome each roadblock on your road to publication. With exercises and worksheets for each topic, we promise tips and tricks to make your work shine.
Give us five minutes.
We’ll give you the writing world.
Just five minutes.
These five-minute chapters are each designed to help you master an aspect of the writers’ craft. From prewriting and character development through plotting, editing, proofreading, and on to the options available in publishing, we will help you with every step of your writing journey. No matter where you are in your process, there is something you can learn that will make your writing stronger.
The path from writer to author is an obstacle course of pitfalls and secret rules. Five Minutes to Success promises to help you overcome each roadblock on your road to publication. With exercises and worksheets for each topic, we promise tips and tricks to make your work shine.
Give us five minutes.
We’ll give you the writing world.
374 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 20, 2017
About the author
D.W. Vogel
24 books45 followersD.W. Vogel is a veterinarian, marathon runner, SCUBA diver, and cancer survivor. She was raised on Cincinnati chili and is a really terrible bowler. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband Andrew and a houseful of special needs pets.
D.W. Vogel is a pseudonym of Wendy Vogel.
D.W. Vogel is a pseudonym of Wendy Vogel.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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April 25, 2018I highly recommend this book to anyone serious about the craft of writing. It's a quick read, for starters--the kind that you can go back to section by section (as it's well organized) and revisit several times over. It includes exercises, if you're into that sort of thing, and maintains a bouyant, delightful tone throughout its pages.
December 4, 2018
Even as a 4-time publisher author, there was information in this book I could immediately adapt into my current writing!
March 31, 2018
I first heard about this book not long after it was released. A friend of mine happens to know both of the authors and was encouraging everyone that he knew to pick it up. Eventually, that's just what I did. Then, it sat on my Kindle until this past week when I decided to start really working on my education as an author. I confess that I didn't do a 5 minute lesson each day. If I had, it would be another 6 years before I wrote this review. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but this book is long.
The Good:
There is a ton of great information within the pages of this book. Even if you're not new to writing, this book will serve as a great refresher course. Each section has a little assignment at the end which will help the knowledge acquired sink in even further. This is one of my favorite things about this type of book. I'm a put it down in pen and ink kind of learner so having study questions really helps.
The Bad:
While it is stated that there are two authors for this book, the book really reads as if only DW Vogel (known as Wendy in the book) wrote it. I believe there are only one or two occasions where Jeri's opinion is stated. Also, there are locations where the punctuation is off (primarily section 1) and at least one point where a sentence's subject's gender changed mid-sentence. There are some other errors in the book, such as Deus Ex Machina being listed as Deus Ex Machine and the author's use of the term dialog instead of dialogue. Granted, that last one is a pet peeve kind of thing for me. It isn't technically wrong, but it isn't the preferred form of the word. Dialog should be reserved for software design in my world.
The Summary:
If you can overlook the issues that I mentioned above, don't hesitate to pick up this book. It doesn't matter if you're a first time writer or someone who has been at this for a while, I'm pretty sure that you can find something in there that you can use. I do want to point out that the emphasis is more on traditional publishing, but again, don't let that stop you, self-publishers! I have no desire to have an agent or be signed to a big name publisher and I have pages and pages of notes to refer back to.
The Good:
There is a ton of great information within the pages of this book. Even if you're not new to writing, this book will serve as a great refresher course. Each section has a little assignment at the end which will help the knowledge acquired sink in even further. This is one of my favorite things about this type of book. I'm a put it down in pen and ink kind of learner so having study questions really helps.
The Bad:
While it is stated that there are two authors for this book, the book really reads as if only DW Vogel (known as Wendy in the book) wrote it. I believe there are only one or two occasions where Jeri's opinion is stated. Also, there are locations where the punctuation is off (primarily section 1) and at least one point where a sentence's subject's gender changed mid-sentence. There are some other errors in the book, such as Deus Ex Machina being listed as Deus Ex Machine and the author's use of the term dialog instead of dialogue. Granted, that last one is a pet peeve kind of thing for me. It isn't technically wrong, but it isn't the preferred form of the word. Dialog should be reserved for software design in my world.
The Summary:
If you can overlook the issues that I mentioned above, don't hesitate to pick up this book. It doesn't matter if you're a first time writer or someone who has been at this for a while, I'm pretty sure that you can find something in there that you can use. I do want to point out that the emphasis is more on traditional publishing, but again, don't let that stop you, self-publishers! I have no desire to have an agent or be signed to a big name publisher and I have pages and pages of notes to refer back to.
October 3, 2017
I should preface this by saying that I read many books on writing. Many. A few by some of the top selling authors in my favorite genres. Others by nationally ranked authors who have been honing their craft for decades. In my experience none of them is as complete as this book is for covering every aspect of of the novel writing process from inception to completion to sale to promotion. Certain books will cover individual details in greater length like pitching to agents or over/underwriting sure. None of them (at least in my experience) do it all with such a crisp easy to digest format.
The authors start with the basics and drive forward in a step by step format to build on each chapter. The chapters are also fairly short so you can read this book in a marathon as I did (mainly because I couldn't put it down, because I'm a big writing nerd) or you can take a few minutes out here or there to pin point what's important to you at the time. Like plotting. Like editing. Like writing a synopsis or even marketing.
Each chapter also contains a series of exercise questions. Yeah, I know. I was shocked to. No one ever thought of that before. Maybe not, but I don't know if they ever approached it in a practical conversational way that impelled the reader (would-be-writer) to plumb the depths of their motivations as well as the eventual desire to as Vogel puts it "get wheelbarrows full of money."
The only thing the book doesn't do is provide lengthy and tedious examples of every possible foible that writers can make and how to fix them. There are snippets which work better in my estimation, but each reader will have to be the judge of that. If you want 50 pages on showing versus telling, there are nearly whole books on that topic.
If you want a book that walks you through the dozens of steps to succeeding as a writer, this is your book. Easily my favorite reference now for charting my off and on again love and obsession with putting my words into print.
The authors start with the basics and drive forward in a step by step format to build on each chapter. The chapters are also fairly short so you can read this book in a marathon as I did (mainly because I couldn't put it down, because I'm a big writing nerd) or you can take a few minutes out here or there to pin point what's important to you at the time. Like plotting. Like editing. Like writing a synopsis or even marketing.
Each chapter also contains a series of exercise questions. Yeah, I know. I was shocked to. No one ever thought of that before. Maybe not, but I don't know if they ever approached it in a practical conversational way that impelled the reader (would-be-writer) to plumb the depths of their motivations as well as the eventual desire to as Vogel puts it "get wheelbarrows full of money."
The only thing the book doesn't do is provide lengthy and tedious examples of every possible foible that writers can make and how to fix them. There are snippets which work better in my estimation, but each reader will have to be the judge of that. If you want 50 pages on showing versus telling, there are nearly whole books on that topic.
If you want a book that walks you through the dozens of steps to succeeding as a writer, this is your book. Easily my favorite reference now for charting my off and on again love and obsession with putting my words into print.
April 22, 2020
Handy instruction manual on fiction writing in 5-minute lessons
This book is a comprehensive guide from brainstorming your writing project all the way through to marketing your completed book. It takes you through everything you would expect to see in such an instructional book, such as outlining, voice, character development, emotional stakes, theme, tension, conflict and resolution. But the authors dig deeper into the craft with chapters such as ‘Tics, Mutterings, and Other Odd Mannerisms’, ‘Show, Don’t Tell, and Specifics Sell’, ‘Twists, Surprises, Red Herrings, and Reversals’, and ‘Where Does Your Story Begin?’. It also gives sound advice on how to edit your first draft. On the marketing end, the book gives numerous tips on querying, how to publicize your book, how to submit to agents and publishers, and what to do while impatiently awaiting replies from them. Also, at the end of each chapter are exercises you can do to practice the principles you have just read about. There is quite a lot of practical information packed into this little book. I would recommend it to any aspiring writer.
https://www.amazon.com/Five-Minutes-S...
This book is a comprehensive guide from brainstorming your writing project all the way through to marketing your completed book. It takes you through everything you would expect to see in such an instructional book, such as outlining, voice, character development, emotional stakes, theme, tension, conflict and resolution. But the authors dig deeper into the craft with chapters such as ‘Tics, Mutterings, and Other Odd Mannerisms’, ‘Show, Don’t Tell, and Specifics Sell’, ‘Twists, Surprises, Red Herrings, and Reversals’, and ‘Where Does Your Story Begin?’. It also gives sound advice on how to edit your first draft. On the marketing end, the book gives numerous tips on querying, how to publicize your book, how to submit to agents and publishers, and what to do while impatiently awaiting replies from them. Also, at the end of each chapter are exercises you can do to practice the principles you have just read about. There is quite a lot of practical information packed into this little book. I would recommend it to any aspiring writer.
https://www.amazon.com/Five-Minutes-S...
July 17, 2026
What a wonderful book on the glorious craft of writing! I really enjoyed learning more about the finer points I should consider as I embark upon writing my first book. And I love the writing exercises throughout the book, especially the white space in the book after the questions that allow me to write my answers right in the book! So fun!
I am reading this book alongside Julia Cameron’s book, Right to Write, and it’s a nice companion book. While Julia’s book is more on the inspirational and creative side, 5 Minutes to Success provides practical advice that I have been using to hone the first chapter of my book. I will be referring back to the highlighted passages in this book during the editing process as well.
I am reading this book alongside Julia Cameron’s book, Right to Write, and it’s a nice companion book. While Julia’s book is more on the inspirational and creative side, 5 Minutes to Success provides practical advice that I have been using to hone the first chapter of my book. I will be referring back to the highlighted passages in this book during the editing process as well.
February 13, 2020
Helpful tips from beggining to end
If I had read this book before I wrote my second draft I'd be a year ahead of where I am now. Great tips everyone can use!
If I had read this book before I wrote my second draft I'd be a year ahead of where I am now. Great tips everyone can use!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews