Craft Your First Five Pages: Glue Your Readers to Your Story with Laura Drake

Ms. Drake shared actionable tips that I've studied and hope to put into use soon. I also really enjoyed her conversational tone. Thanks for offering this class!

A lot of good information to unpack and chew on. Probably will take me a while and then I won't be able to ask questions.

I do agree with another student that it would have been helpful if we knew ahead of time to have loglines ready to post. With all the issues just getting into the class (Saturday lockout), I never got to post. :-(

I found this class to be very useful and I enjoyed the presentation. I like the way she has set up the class.

She gave us lots of great information and was helpful with the loglines. I submitted mine before the deadline on Sunday, but didn't hear back. Maybe I got it in too late?

In the future, I think it would be very helpful to advise the people taking this class to have a working logline prepared. To get the most out of the class- having one and the time to work on further developing it is key. It is advertised as a short/intensive class and if it falls during a busy time in your life-- you might not be able to participate and will miss out on personalized help from Ms. Drake.

Perhaps a course description that is more in-depth regarding what tools you need (logline) and the time involved- you need free time to follow the class on those assigned days.

The class contained great information. The problem was the website and figuring out how to get into the class in the first place. But Laura is wonderful and her feedback very helpful!

Clear, encouraging and available. Helped me quickly find the fatal flaws in my logline. Will definately sign up for another of her classes.

This information was very useful so between it and other classes I hope to get an agent for the book I've started. I self publish now and am hoping for traditional with another series that I pitched to an editor and was accepted.

This was an excellent class with Laura. She gave each query individual attention and critique to polish them and get them RIGHT! I learned SO much!

I have been struggling with my query letter for months. Laura helped me get it ready to go out in just days. I highly recommend her class if you want one on one help with your query. I will be recommending this to all my writer friends.

This is the second time I’ve taken Laura’s class. Whenever I have a manuscript that’s ready to be submitted to publishers or agents, I know she’ll get my query letter in great shape!

This has been the most helpful Savvy class I've taken, and I've taken LOTS of them. Even as the class started I was still struggling as to which opening to use but Laura guided me by asking questions a reader might have so that I could make things clearer without an info dump. I'm really excited about taking what I've learned as I re-write chapter two and beyond. Thank you Laura!

I was quite disappointed in this class.
I didn't feel we were given what was promised which was feedback regarding our pages from a group. I did not expect the instructor to take it upon herself to edit my work, her comments felt nitpicky and she completely ignored the last two pages.
There was barely any feedback from other participants. There were maybe three people in the class? Maybe it should have been canceled, due to low registration, since I assumed that was part of the deal, hearing other people's opinions.
I didn't feel that this course was worth the time or money.

One of the most useful classes I've taken at Savvy and that's saying a lot. There are lots of good classes on the basics, but Laura really helped me take my book to the next level. Thank you!

The instructor feedback, class notes/lessons were of tremendous craft reference value to improve one's writing and revising. I gained a tremendous amount of information, even attained a higher level of writing sophistication thanks to attending this class. Impressive instructor, excellent, useful class.

This was the first class I have been able to participate in and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The feedback from Laura as well as the group was extremely helpful to me and i look forward to being able to attend another one soon!

Lots of info and support

Laura Drake is full of great information and useful advice. The class dealt with story design issues and how to manage or fix them. A must for writers ready to move beyond the basics.

I loved Laura Drake's class! I'm still a newbie and still uncomfortable with putting my "stuff" out there. But Laura made me feel welcome and relaxed. Her editing suggestions to my first pages were always precise and spot on. She refreshed my memory with some basics I had forgotten. Any time she had a criticism/suggestion, she delivered it with kindness, wit and much patience when I couldn't seem to grasp what she wanted out of me. The class had a great group of students. Laura had a strict requirement that we all help critique each others' material. Everyone blended well because of Laura's guidance. I'm looking forward to her next class. Thanks, Laura!!

Connie Parrott