Opening Pages: Hook & Heft
How to Craft an Opening Chapter that Keeps Readers Reading ($99/149)
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 must be your good stuff—or maybe your great stuff! In this workshop, we will focus on your novel's first pages. We will present a detailed “checklist” of what the opening of a novel needs to accomplish. Students will have the chance to present their first page in class for critique. 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 strengthen your opening pages.
Lori Anne Goldstein is a creative writing instructor, manuscript consultant, and the author of four novels for young adults (Sources Say, Penguin Random House, 2020; Screen Queens, Penguin Random House, 2019; and the Becoming Jinn series (Macmillan, 2015, 2016). She credits her BA in journalism with giving her the skills and desire to devote herself to the extensive research that forms the core of her adult historical debut, Love, Theodosia, a Romeo and Juliet for Hamilton fans (out now in hardcover and paperback). She lives in the Boston area and can be found online at: www.lorigoldsteinbooks.com; Instagram: @lorigoldsteinbooks; Twitter: @loriagoldstein; Facebook: LoriGoldsteinAuthor.