Promises to the Reader: Engaging First Chapters in Fiction Writing with Jacqui Lipton

What’s the best way to get (and hold) your readers’ attention from the first line of your book until the last?

With so many books to read and so many ways to read them (ebooks, audiobooks, and good old fashioned hardbacks and paperbacks), authors are often fighting for reader eyeballs in an increasingly crowded marketplace comprising books from traditional publishers, newer and smaller presses, and self-published authors.

This six-session workshop will cover strategies for creating engaging opening lines, scenes and chapters as well as examining what to seed in those chapters that will pay dividends in the remainder of the book. Topics covered will include: (a) examining the most effective openings in our favorite books and considering why they’re so memorable; (b) first sentences, paragraphs, and scenes; (c) the overall structure of a first chapter; (d) prologues – boon or bane? (e) balancing backstory with forward motion in an opening chapter; (f) playing with narrative distance and point of view.

Participants will be given reading and writing assignments relevant to each class, including extracts from novels and references to craft books: in particular, Nancy Kress’s Beginnings, Middles, and Ends (Elements of Fiction Writing).