The First Twenty Pages

The first twenty pages of your novel are the most essential. These pages orient readers and convince them to have confidence in your storytelling. You’re also establishing your novel’s narrative strategy (point of view, narrative distance, and other craft choices) and introducing the distinctive emotional register of your work. In this seminar, we’ll marvel at the many ways to begin a novel and learn how to create a contract with our readers to keep them reading. Appropriate for all levels, from writers drafting their first twenty pages to those further along, looking to land agents with a watertight writing sample.