The First 50 Pages: 2012 Writer's Digest Conference Session

The opening fifty pages carry a surprising amount of weight for beginning a novel correctly. You have to engage your reader, introduce your hero, and establish the context of the story. You'll also be presenting the stakes, introducing the antagonist, establishing the hero's desires, starting the main character's inner journey, and getting a ticking time bomb to ticking down. Plus much more. And you want to do all these things without dumping backstory on your reader, misleading your reader, insulting your reader's intelligence, or tipping your hand to your reader. In this class, Jeff shows you how to begin your novel with the skill and intentionality that keeps readers' eyes glued to the page.