The First Fifty Pages Are Your First Impression!
Do you know how to make them speak to your reader?

Agents, editors, and readers alike all make many intellectual and intuitive judgments based on what I loosely call the “the beginning” of a novel. Think about it. How many pages do you give a book before you say, “m’eh” and put it aside so that you can move on (happily, blissfully) to something else? Or how many pages before you cancel your date night, take the phone off the hook, and order take-out, all so that you can immerse yourself in another world more tempting than this one? Is such a decision-making process always fair or totally objective? Sometimes, but not all the time. And it certainly shouldn’t discount the importance of the entire book, which may, despite a slow start, wow and thrill and move us in the end, or, sometimes (just as easily) not deliver on its grand, initial promises.

For each person, the notion of “the beginning” might be different, of course. It might cover fifty pages, five pages, or even five paragraphs. Still, it’s as good as any a starting place for thinking about your own work and how it invests a reader, or doesn’t.   And from a technique and crafting perspective, if those first 50 pages, which lay the groundwork for the entire plot, aren’t working, more problems will often mount up, exponentially, as you write beyond them.

This class, for beginning and experienced writers alike, starts at page one and encourages weekly submissions of up to five pages (double-spaced, 12 font, Times New Roman), so that, if you are diligent, you will have submitted your first 50 pages for feedback by the time class ends. Each week we’ll also cover topics on technique and craft that will help you revise and strengthen your work. It’s a great class for those who are taking my outlining class and want to submit actual manuscript pages. It’s also great for those who’d like specific feedback on their opening pages.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1:
Introductions. Your Goals. Topic: Investing readers. What does a good opening do? Does it need to do everything?

Week 2:
Characters: Creating memorable ones. Characters defined through action. Characters defined through depth, emotion.

Week 3:
Conflict, Part I: Conflict interaction. Escalation and tension.

Week 4:
Conflict, part II: Tightening conflict interactions, character relationships.

Week 5:
Scene. Weaving, setting up scenes with an eye toward character development and overall climax.

Week 6:
Setting and atmosphere: making them credible. The role setting plays in overall tone, how setting helps build character, how it helps build plot.

Week 7:
POV: What it is, what it does, techniques for point of view in the novel. Too few POVs? Too many? How that choice depends on your plot and story.

Week 8:
Dialogue. How it deepens and defines character, how it moves the story along, how it creates modulation within the narrative. Summarized thought vs. dialogue.

Week 9:
The devil is in details: Polished writing and language. The role of research.

Week 10:
Revision, and beyond.