The First 20 Pages
(2 spots left)

A new workshop by Chelsea Hodson
November 9 — December 21, 2024

About the workshop

As a writer, there are many different occasions in which your first 20 pages need to make an impact on its reader: perhaps you’re almost ready to query an agent, apply to an MFA program or artist residency, or perhaps you’re just ready to get some feedback on what kind of first impression your writing is making and you want to learn more about clarity, precision, and narrative momentum.

In this workshop conducted over Zoom, each writer will turn in their first 20 pages of a prose project (novel, memoir, short story collection, essay collection, etc, just no poetry) and they will receive a written letter as well as line edits from every writer in the class when they are workshopped. Chelsea Hodson will also write an editorial response in addition to providing line edits that offer suggestions on sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation.

By the time you leave this workshop, you’ll have all the feedback you need to make your first 20 pages as effective and absorbing as possible, and you’ll have challenged and sharpened your editorial skills.

Timing, absences, and recordings

Each class will be held on Saturday from 9-11AM Pacific / 12-2PM Eastern. There are six class meetings, beginning on November 9 and ending on December 21, with no class on November 30.

Absences are allowed, but I am asking that every writer enrolled in the workshop agree to turn in their letters and line edits to each writer on time, regardless of whether or not they are in class that day.

Each workshop will be recorded and shared with the class.

All experience levels welcome

If you’ve never written an editorial letter before, I will teach you how to write a great one. If you’ve never been in a workshop before, this will be a welcoming environment combined with work designed to challenge your editorial skills. If your 20 pages are brand new and unedited, that’s just as great as if your 20 pages are years old.

This class is limited to 10 writers in order to preserve an intimate setting with enough time to dive deeply into each writer’s manuscript.

More about Chelsea

I am the author of the essay collection Tonight I’m Someone Else, I am the publisher and editor of the independent press Rose Books, I am the founder of the Morning Writing Club, and I have been teaching and editing for over 10 years.

Any questions?