Saturday Afternoon Masterclasses

Starting in spring 2026: a new series of one-off, in-person masterclasses. These small-group classes will focus intensively on a particular area of craft or development. The first of these is now open for booking!

 

The First 10 Pages: Preparing your Novel for Submission – a Masterclass with Susanna Jones​

​April 18, 1.30-4.30pm

Brighton Girls, Montpelier Road, Brighton

For full details and to book a place, please visit Eventbrite.

​

​The first pages of a novel can be the hardest to get right — not because the writing is weak, but because the opening is trying to do too much and too little at once.

As a tutor and mentor, some of the most common problems I see are:
• unclear or unsettled voice
• too much information and background, before we know why it matters
• an opening that has been revised so many times it has lost its original energy
• confused messages about the kind of story it’s going to be
• the story really doesn’t begin until chapter 2 or later

These are fixable. The first few pages don’t need to explain everything but, with careful crafting, can quietly establish the structure, patterns and concerns of the whole novel.

I’m running a small, intensive 3-hour masterclass in Brighton focused on strengthening the first 10 pages of your novel, while keeping them firmly in the context of your whole manuscript.

It’s designed for writers who already have a draft – or are partway through one – and want to refine or reshape their opening, particularly if they’re thinking about submission. Bring along your first chapter and have the rest of your draft available for reference. If you've written your final chapter, you might want to look at both together. 

Places are limited to 8–10 participants to allow detailed discussion and individual feedback.

​​

Fee: £75*

​

*Early-bird discount of £10 until March 23

*Alumni discount of £10 for former participants of any Pebble Beach course.

Get in touch for alumni discount code.

(only one discount may be applied):

​​​

​

​Future sessions (May – November ) will explore:​

​

• Shaping Your Novel: Structure, Storyline and Momentum.

• Revising and Editing: from Draft to Polished Novel.

• Getting Unstuck or Reviving a Stalled Novel.

• Intensive Fiction Workshop (3 participants – novel excerpts submitted in advance).

• Beginners' Session: Writing for People Who Think They Can't Write.

 

Details will be available soon.​​​​​​​​