Literary Agent Noah Lukeman has represented big names like Gene Hackman, Fran Drescher and even the Dalai Lama. His clients are no stranger to the bestseller lists and Lukeman consistently places his clients with major publishing houses.

He's also the author of the bestselling book for writers, The First Five Pages. And his new book, The Plot Thickens has already received high praise from critics.

FictionAddiction.NET's Vanessa McDaniel caught up with Lukeman to discuss his new book as well as his advice for writers.

Your book takes on an almost spiritual tone when you discuss things like "Transcendence" and "Relatability." Was that your goal?

The goal was to help writers consider the very depths of their characters, which unavoidably leads past surface issues like geography and politics and into deeper issues, like ideology, religion, belief systems and values. Another goal was to help writers consider their works in a greater context - not just as entertainment, or education, or pretty-sounding prose - but as something greater, something which “transcends.”

To write is one thing. To decide why you’re writing, or for whom you’re writing, or what you hope to achieve, is another. Sometimes such awareness only comes half-way through a work, or at the end of a work, or not at all.

Sometimes it infuses a work with something greater; sometimes it forces itself upon a work and makes it feel dogmatic or pre-fabricated. It’s a delicate balance. What’s relevant is that thinking in such a way can trigger you’re looking at your book in a new light, which in turn can trigger a breakthrough in a certain area.

And when one begins tackling such an issue as this (transcendence), I suppose it can easily become “spiritual” sounding - although that is not necessarily the goal. I’d prefer to view it as simply trying to take the normal dialogue on the craft of writing to a more profound level.

Your references to film and television brought your lessons to life. Does that mean that watching All My Children or Die Hard can help a writer create plots?

Absolutely. Artistic inspiration can - and should - come from anywhere. It is silly to limit what you can or can not learn from.

I think most people find that they can spend many hours in a classroom, where they are conventionally “supposed” to learn something, and not necessarily leave with any great inspiration or enlightenment; conversely, via a simple walk in the park, or some unexpected, insignificant activity, one might suddenly have an awareness of great significance. An artist might scrutinize all the conventionally “great” paintings and take away nothing, and then, on the way out of a museum, glance at a “lesser” painting out of the corner of his eye, and have tremendous insight.

It’s funny you ask, because the New York Times criticized The Plot Thickens because it dared to bring TV shows and films into a discussion about plot; they took the stance that one has to learn about plot only from other books, which I find provincial.

How much do you think critique groups help or hurt the fiction writer's voice?

It depends on the group, and depends on the writer. Some writers do well with groups - for some, groups can give them the extra motivation, structure, inspiration, perspective and feedback they need. For others, comments, even well-intended, can be hurtful, and can cause writer’s block and prevent further writing, or can dwindle confidence to a point where future writing is less bold and thus less original.

Some groups have a great chemistry and are very supportive of each other; others are a round table of criticism. It’s really hard to make a blanket judgement. I would just say follow your instincts.

Do you think it's more gratifying to have an obscure masterpiece or to have a commercially-motivated bestseller?

Gratification is in the eye of the beholder. What’s gratifying for me won’t necessarily be gratifying for someone else, and vice versa. That said, personally, I never think any piece of art should be commercially motivated; the motivation should be for the art to be as great a piece of art as it can be, and the gratification should come in the creation itself. One hears stories of ancient Egyptian sculptures that were carved on the outside and the inside, where no one would ever see them; the ancient sculptor found gratification in knowing his work was the best it could be, even if no one else ever saw or appreciated it.