Class Description
In this class, we’ll examine published excerpts from fiction and nonfiction and discuss the ways in which the authors achieve successful beginnings and endings. We will consider the range of possibilities for beginnings—in medias res, image, dialogue, and more—and for endings—cliffhangers, open endings, resolved endings, and, of course, the surprising and inevitable ending. We’ll discuss the relationship between the first and last sentence and ways for determining both. And we’ll do exercises designed to try out various approaches for writing effective beginnings and endings. By the end of class, you should have a firm grasp on beginnings and endings as well as a toolkit of techniques to apply to your own work. Great for writers of both fiction and nonfiction.
Part of GrubStreet's Elements of Craft series, dedicated to exploring craft issues on a deeper level. For more on this series' offerings, click here.
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.