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FREE | And Then the Murders Began: Writing Great First Paragraphs
November 21, 2021 @ 12:15 am - 1:30 am EST
Free
About this event
Author Marc Laidlaw recently wrote, “The first line of almost any story can be improved by making sure the second line is, ‘And then the murders began.’” While often true, most writers can’t actually use this technique. In this module, we will examine the first paragraphs of recent award-winning short stories to show why (and how) they work to hook readers. Afterward, we’ll work on improving paragraphs in progress.
Lucy A. Snyder is the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated and five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 15 books and over 100 published short stories. Her most recent books are the collection Halloween Season and the forthcoming novel The Girl with the Star-Stained Soul. She also wrote the novels Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, and Switchblade Goddess, the nonfiction book Shooting Yourself in the Head for Fun and Profit: A Writer’s Survival Guide, and the collections Garden of Eldritch Delights, While the Black Stars Burn, Soft Apocalypses, Orchid Carousals, Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her writing has been translated into French, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Czech, and Japanese editions and has appeared in publications such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, and Best Horror of the Year. She lives in Columbus, Ohio. You can learn more about her at www.lucysnyder.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @LucyASnyder.
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The Valley of Writers team scours the web looking for the most inspiring, elevating, and accessible events that we can share as a service to our readers.
The big idea is that in a virtual arena, more people can participate. Geographical boundaries matter less.
The events we list are virtual and can be attended by writers from wherever they are in the world.
Unless otherwise stated, we are not affiliated with and do not benefit financially from the events we post. Listing is not an endorsement of the content, opinions, or products promoted by the event organizers we feature here.
Please verify all dates, times and other event details as these are subject to change and are beyond our control.
What qualifies an event as ‘lit’? Any event that we think would teach writers of fiction, memoir, and poetry useful skills, inspire them to produce great work, remind them of the power of this work we do and build stronger, mutually beneficial ties between writers and other creatives.
