Craft Seminar: Uputdownable: How to Build Momentum in the Opening Pages of Novels with Isle McElroy
Craft Seminar: Uputdownable: How to Build Momentum in the Opening Pages of Novels with Isle McElroy
1 Session: Thursday, November 13
6:00-8:00pm ET
Isle McElroy
Isle McElroy is the author of The Atmospherians, a New York Times Editors' Choice, and People Collide, named a best book of 2023 by Vulture, Vogue, NPR, Them, and the New York Times Critics. McElroy teaches at the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College and teaches an annual novel generator class.
What makes a novel impossible to put down? How does a novelist create momentum from the opening page? In this craft lecture, students will study opening passages from authors like Raven Leilani, Sarah Thankam Mathews, James Baldwin, Imogen Binnie, and others to learn how novel beginnings convey the arc of the book to follow.
As readers, we will focus on tone, setting, characterization, and plot to get a sense of what the writer has done to draw the reader into the world of the novel. Topics covered will include world-building, character development, shifting points-of-view, nontraditional form, unreliable narration, and dialogue. The attention to both introductory and advanced craft elements will make this course suitable for writers at every level.
Workshop Highlights:
How to create momentum and intrigue
How to deliver information while also building tension and developing character
The difference between mystery and confusion
This course has 1 scholarship available. To apply, please fill out this form by TK.
Isle McElroy is a nonbinary writer based in Brooklyn. Their most recent novel is People Collide (HarperCollins, 2023), praised by NPR as a “deep exploration of marriage, love, and the ways we know one another.” Their debut novel is The Atmospherians (Atria, 2021), called “exceptional writing” by the New York Times. They are the author of a story collection, Daddy Issues (The Cupboard Pamphlet, 2016), winner of the Cupboard Pamphlet’s 2016 Editors’ Prize. They have received fellowships from The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Tin House Summer Workshop, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Inprint Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, and The National Parks Service.
McElroy is also an essayist and critic. Their writing has appeared in The Cut, BuzzFeed, Vulture, GQ, Elle, Vice, The Atlantic, Bon Appetit, Tin House, and elsewhere. In 2021, they founded Debuts and Redos, a monthly reading series featuring debut authors and authors who released books during the pandemic.