Class Description
Readers don’t only judge books by their covers, they judge them on their first pages. Whether you're looking to appeal to an agent, editor, or reader, novel openings are key. Readers won’t keep reading “to get to the good stuff.” Those first critical pages should be your good stuff—or maybe your great stuff! In this workshop, we will focus on the first five pages of your novel manuscript. The seminar will begin with a craft lecture on what the opening of a novel should achieve and then each student will read aloud their first five pages and be critiqued on the elements introduced in the craft lecture by both their peers and the instructor. Whether you have a completed manuscript or a work in progress, this workshop will help you identify what’s working and what needs to be further honed to get those first five pages to accurately represent your writing and your novel. A week prior to the course, the instructor will request the first 5 pages you wish to present via email.
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.