[This is a Virtual Ruby event, an 8-week workshop that will take place on Thursdays, October 1 through November 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 PST. Attendance at each meeting is expected. Zoom info and more details to follow with registration. Space is limited; your registration will be confirmed over email. This workshop is free for a limited number of Ruby members, and open to nonmembers for a course fee of $450, with 1 scholarship available for a BIPOC/LGBTQ nonmember. Find more details on registering below.]
Zadie Smith writes that the first twenty pages of a novel are "a kind of existential drama, a long answer to the short question: What kind of a novel am I writing? “It’s as if you’re winding the key of a toy car tighter and tighter…. when you finally let it go, it travels at a crazy speed. I think worrying over the first twenty pages is my way of working on the whole novel, my way of finding its structure, its plot, its characters."
In this workshop, we'll read and critique the first twenty pages of your book-length prose project (call this a novel if you like, or a memoir; for this writer, invention begins when a shape is imposed on life). We'll talk about those crafty things Smith mentions—tone, structure, plot, characters, etc—as well as more nebulous concerns of originality, authenticity, responsibility, and intuition. We'll talk about the countless places and ways a story might begin, different types and functions of beginnings, and that most elusive of questions: how do you know when you've coiled the spring just right?
This class is open to all women and nonbinary writers but will be most useful to those who have made substantial progress on a book-length project. Participants will also be asked to submit a short proposal of their project, and will hopefully leave the workshop with a strong sample and statement for residency/fellowship/grant applications. More importantly, they will come closer to answering the question: what kind of a book am I writing?
To register: Select the appropriate ticket (nonmember or Ruby member) & register through Eventbrite. Nonmembers, please submit a short paragraph introducing yourself/your reasons for wanting to take this workshop and a 10-page writing sample to staff@therubysf.com.
One scholarship is available for a BIPOC/LGBTQ nonmember. To apply for the scholarship, please submit the above materials and an additional paragraph explaining how the scholarship might be particularly impactful to you right now by Sunday, September 13.
Also available: 1 hour private conference with Meng | $100
About Meng Jin
Meng Jin is the author of the novel, Little Gods. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Steinbeck Fellowship, Elizabeth George Foundation grant, David TK Wong Fellowship, and Pushcart Prize, among other honors. Her narrative prose has appeared or is forthcoming in Vogue, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, Best American Short Stories 2020, and elsewhere.