About

**Class canceled per Julie's request 3/2 SK**

Opening scenes introduce your protagonist, her/his world, their goals, the stakes, and your story's themes. It's no wonder that an opening scene is often the most difficult to write! This workshop will look at a variety of approaches, with examples from classic, literary/commercial fiction, memoir. Writing prompts will be used to help you create depth and tension in your opening scene. Participants are asked to bring and share the first 500 words of a work-in-progress for feedback. Writing prompts will be used to help you find or create depth and tension in your opening scene.

Writers will leave the workshop with ideas to put into concrete practice as they approach their opening scene during the revision process, which will determine where their novel actually begins.

Julie Christine Johnson is the award-winning author of the novels In Another Life (Sourcebooks, 2016) and The Crows of Beara (Ashland Creek Press, 2017). Her short stories and essays have appeared in several journals, including Emerge Literary Journal; Mud Season Review; Cirque: A Literary Journal of the North Pacific Rim; Cobalt; River Poets Journal, in the print anthologies Stories for Sendai; Up, Do: Flash Fiction by Women Writers; and Three Minus One: Stories of Love and Loss; and featured on the flash fiction podcast No Extra Words. She holds undergraduate degrees in French and psychology and a master’s in international affairs. Julie leads writing workshops and seminars and offers story/developmental editing and writer coaching services. A hiker, yogi, and wine geek, Julie makes her home on the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State.