CHRISTINE MA-KELLAMS—GREAT BEGINNINGS

Friday, March 27
2:30 – 3:45 PM–Writer’s Craft Session 
CHRISTINE MA-KELLAMS—GREAT BEGINNINGS
How does a story start? How well you answer this question dictates whether the reader turns the page and finds out what happens next. Novelist, psychologist, and culture/lifestyle writer Christine Ma-Kellams discusses the secret(s) to get a total stranger to stay a little while longer in the world you’ve introduced them to for no other reason than an irresistible urge to find out what happens next. This writing workshop will examine classic and recent opening lines—from the loaded observations in Virginia Woolf and Deesha Philyaw to the real life music video that inspired the first lines of Ma-Kellams’ The Band—and how they set up the narrative arc for the remainder of the story. We will discuss how to apply them across narrative formats, from novels to short stories and everything in between. We’ll spend the second half of the session workshopping your own opening lines, which will include writing exercises, sharing, and feedback.
Hotel Monteleone, Lobby Level, Royal Salon, $25 or VIP Pass.