A story opening should multi-task. Not only must it capture the reader’s attention; it should also suggest the protagonist’s gender, age, class, race, or nationality, establish the setting, tone, and point of view, and hint at the plot’s conflict. An opening should perform like a well-written query to an editor, telegraphing the kind of story that will follow. Opening with an introspective first-person voice sets up a story that will focus on the thoughts and emotions of a person wrestling with an internal problem. Opening with actions between several characters indicates a story about an event and its ramifications. Several characters in conversation signals an ensuing clash between people’s attitudes and opinions.

During this half-day class for fiction and nonfiction writers, students will read examples with a professional eye, closely analyzing these and other craft techniques used to open classic stories.

About the instructor: 

Nan Cuba is the author of Body and Bread, winner of the PEN Southwest Award in Fiction and the Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction, and co-editor of Art at our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers and Artists. Her work has appeared in Antioch Review, Harvard Review, Columbia, Chicago Tribune’s Printer’s Row, LIFE, Third Coast, and D Magazine. She has received a Dobie Paisano Fellowship and an artist residency at Fundación Valparaiso in Spain, and was a finalist for the Humanities Texas Award for Individual Achievement. She is the founder and executive director emeritus of Gemini Ink, a nonprofit literary center, and teaches in the MA/MFA Program in Literature, Creative Writing, and Social Justice at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, where she is writer-in-residence. Her website is http://nancuba.com.