Crafting Spellbinding Beginnings in Fiction and Nonfiction

In this class, you’ll learn how to hook readers with an alluring first line, sustain suspense, and balance mystery with vivid imagery. This class explores the essential elements of powerful beginnings, including character introductions, setting the scene, establishing stakes, and creating intrigue. In this class, you’ll read iconic openings and identify the key elements that make them work. You’ll engage in generative writing exercises that guide you in composing your own spellbinding openings.

About the teacher:

Jessica Alexander has taught creative writing workshops at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall College, Porchlight Literary Arts Center, The Fairweather Project, and The Iowa Summer Writing Festival, among other places. Her novella, None of This Is an Invitation (co-written with Katie Jean Shinkle) was published by Astrophil Press in summer 2023. Her story collection, Dear Enemy, was the winning manuscript in the 2016 Subito Prose Contest. Her collaborative memoir (co-written with Vi Khi Nao) That Woman Could Be You came out with BlazeVox in April 2022. Her novel, Agnes, We’re Not Murderers is forthcoming from Clash Books in 2026.

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