The first challenge of writing your story is figuring out how to begin writing. The second challenge, arguably, is figuring out how to write your beginning. How can we welcome our readers into our writing in a way that makes them want to stay?
In this two-hour online workshop, we will review the opening paragraphs of a few well-known and perhaps lesser-known novels. We will look at style, phrasing, how character and place is established, and what grabs us and pulls us in. How is the protagonist established? How does the writer’s use of First Person, Third Person or Omniscient POV work to set the tone? Is the character’s want and need properly set up? Is the inciting incident clear? How is the foundation for the theme laid out? How are the rules of the world set forth? What is the emotional landscape?
We will examine all these elements; discuss how they work and why they serve to pull us into the action of the story. Then participants will workshop either the beginning paragraphs of whatever they are working on or create a new beginning from a blank page. Participants who are ready to read their work are encouraged to do so.
Book excerpts may be pulled from:
The Cutting Season by Attica Locke
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Ghost Writer by Robert Harris
The Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
This workshop will be held online. You must have the Zoom app downloaded and a reliable internet connection to access your class meetings. You will receive the information to access your Zoom classroom one week before the start of your workshop — check your spam folders if you don’t see it!
Tuition: $30 for non-members or $25 for Cabin Members
Date: Wednesday, February 1st from 6:30 - 8:30 PM
This workshop is taught by:
