Call to Adventure: Editing the Opening (Mar 24 – Apr 6, 2025)
$150.00
Description
$150 (Members: $135) | How to edit novel openings| 2 weeks | With Instructor Feedback | Intermediate
Readers are judgy. When they’re deciding whether to read a book, they often give the author only a few pages – sometimes not even a whole chapter! This class is designed to show editors how to help authors sharpen their openers.
This class will cover how to help the author:
- create a compelling goal-motivation-conflict
- introduce key supporting characters
- hint at the stakes
- prepare the reader for the journey
- imply the character arc
- set the stage without halting the action
- and do it all quickly and without info-dumping!
We’ll also explore how to develop that all important reader-catching opening line. (And how this can, and should, relate to theme.)
Each week includes a lesson and an assignment to turn in for instructor feedback.
Intermediate classes are intended for those with some developmental editing experience or who have taken the Beginning + Intermediate DE for Fiction classes or the self-paced DE 1 through 6 classes.
The class is entirely online and asynchronous (you don’t have to be in any particular place at any particular time to participate) but the assignments are due by specific deadlines.
