Class Description
How to begin and end a novel can seem elusive, frustrating, and out of reach. Join this class taught by a skilled editor who will demystify how to craft beginnings and endings. In this 3-hour session, you will be introduced to several entryways and craft choices that cater to your unique voice as we probe the mechanics of a book’s opening and ending paragraphs. We will analyze successful beginnings and endings of several novels, including Ocean Vuong, Percival Everett, Ruth Ozeki, Anthony Doerr, Nella Larsen, and others. Writers should bring ideas and a draft of their beginnings and endings to work on during this session. Even if you don’t have a draft of a beginning or ending, you’ll leave with one!
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.