The First Forty Pages: Building Your Novel

Description

Instructor: Allison Alsup
Genre: Fiction
Number of Sessions: 4
Meets: 6-8 PM CT
Dates: Mon., Oct. 21 – Nov. 11, 2024
Where: NOCCA Foundation
Cost: $180 / Early Bird until Oct. 10: $165

Opening chapters are make or break. They’re also some of the toughest. Whether appealing to a reader, agent, or editor, the first pages contain the majority of our choices. It’s here we establish “the rules” or bulk of our narrative decisions—premise, voice, pacing, characterization, conflict, stakes, and world-building–all of which determine the story to follow. Pull off these choices successfully, even elegantly, and the reader invests. Short shrift a fundamental, and the work may never find its footing or audience.

Perhaps you’ve taken a manuscript as far as you can. Or you’re struggling to get a storyline into motion. This course is for those who are ready to shape their vision to give readers what they need. No one can guarantee you publication; our collective objective, however, is to get your manuscript decidedly closer to that goal.

Over four sessions, we’ll tackle key challenges particular to building successful beginnings. Through strategic exercises, assignments, novel excerpts, and discussion, participants will not only develop an understanding of what they absolutely must accomplish in these chapters but also hone their vision for the content to come.

Important notes on this course:

1. Participants must have already landed on an idea or novel draft before the first class session. All workshop participants will submit their first 750 words for the second class session.
2. No formal writing training is necessary, although previous writing experience and a knowledge of basic narrative vocabulary is very helpful. This class is not intended for those who have never written creatively.
3. Optional post-course consult: $250. Participants can submit their first 40 double-spaced pages for detailed written feedback from the instructor; also included is a one hour, in-person meeting to discuss the work and further revisions. This reduced-priced offer is for Building Your Novel participants only.