The Checklist: Perfect Your Novel’s Opening Pages

The opening pages of your novel are a portal and a promise. We want your readers to open the door, step through, and immerse themselves in the rest of your story. To achieve this, we’ll go through a checklist of the eleven core elements that must harmonize in your opening pages—from a distinctive, compelling voice to a high-stakes narrative that will grip readers.

So much needs to happen in those crucial opening words, and you have so little space to do it. But it can be done. With our checklist as a guide, you’ll share your first five(ish) pages and explore ways to strengthen them. Using a workshop format for constructive feedback and collective brainstorming, we’ll focus on analyzing the strengths and challenges in our work. We’ll ask questions such as: does the premise grab the reader? Can we make the stakes clear? Are the characters authentic?

When we apply what we’ve learned about our first five pages to the rest of the novel, we’ll have a tighter, stronger, more riveting manuscript. We’ll help each other create the best opening possible for our novels—because they deserve every chance to be read and savored.

Who This Course is For:

This workshop is for anyone who is working on a novel and wants to get it ready for submission (novel doesn’t need to be completed, but it’s best if you’re at least half-way done and/or have a completed synopsis or outline.) Whether it’s your first project or tenth—let’s work together to get it in shape. 

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will learn:

• What makes an effective opening—what drives the reader to keep reading? (And what doesn’t.)
• What to include, what not to include. Are there info dumps? Is POV consistent? Does prose flow in a natural, organic way? Etc.
• The Checklist: You will receive a checklist of elements needed in an effective, engaging first five pages.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will:

• Write and submit a synopsis of your work-in-progress. We’ll use this to determine if your opening pages are accomplishing what you want.
• Share at least two versions of your opening pages with the group. In workshop format we will critique our pages, with clear, helpful feedback given by me and other students.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet over Zoom weekly in four ninety-minutes sessions, starting Tuesday, November 26th at 7 PM Eastern. Individual Zoom consultations with instructor are available as requested.

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: See what they did there?

We’ll examine opening pages of some highly successful novels and analyze what worked—what was it that drove the reader to keep reading? Synopsis review of projects.

Week Two: Who? Why?

You will submit a draft of your first five pages. We’ll discuss character and stakes, reviewing drafts and exploring ways to enhance these elements. The First Five Checklist will be provided and discussed.

Week Three: Where are we? When is this?

We’ll focus on orienting the reader to time/place, enhancing voice, and analyzing flow of prose. Participants will have rewritten openings, using feedback given. We’ll offer more intensive analysis and honing on micro level. What else do we need to do to make these pages SOAR?

Week Four: Are we ready to submit?  

In this final session, we’ll finish up our revisions, read aloud the final versions, and discuss next steps in preparing our work for submission. (Secret hint: How can we use the checklist to strengthen the rest of the novel??)

$345.00 Original price was: $345.00.$295.00Current price is: $295.00.Enroll Now