Comma Short Story Course in Sheffield

Location: Bank Street Arts, 32-40 Bank Street, Sheffield S1 2DS Times: 7-9pm

Price: £180 for the full course (attendees must pay for full course- individual course units not available separately).

Dates: Six workshops are held over a 6 month period to enable you to complete writing assignments: Thursday 12th January 2017 Thursday 9th February 2017 Thursday 9th March 2017 Thursday 13th April 2017 Thursday 11th May 2017 Thursday 8th June 2017

This course is about the short story … Over the course of 6 workshops, you’ll get a handle on the predominant narrative structures used by short story writers, and implement them in your own work. Completing set writing tasks between workshops, and receiving structured, peer-driven feedback, you’ll develop 3 short stories to completion, with tailored advice on how to shape the story, and how to improve the characterisation, dialogue, and narrative voice.

Comma Press, one of the UK’s leading publisher of short fiction is always looking for new voices in short fiction and it’s hoped that this course will unearth and develop contenders for one of their showcases of new writers.

What you need to be familiar with … You don’t necessarily need any practical experience of writing stories, nor of supervised creative writing of any kind, but it’s important that you have an interest in, and enthusiasm for, the short story form. To get the most from the course, you should be prepared do some background reading, undertake writing tasks between sessions, read the work of others on the course prior to each session, offer tactful – yet frank – feedback, and receive constructive criticism on your own work.

The course isn’t geared towards any particular sub-genre within the short story form – be it literary fiction, sci-fi, or horror – we’ll be looking at techniques applicable to all these genres. This course will be taught by author, Jude Brown.

What we won’t cover … This isn’t a course devised to help you write a novel, a novella, poetry, micro-fiction, or biography – it’s all about the short story, which presents its own specific demands and opportunities to writers (for the avoidance of doubt, short stories typically weigh in at somewhere between 1500 and 8000 words long, for the purpose of this course we will be looking at stories up to 5,000 words long).

Equipment you’ll need … Something to write with (pen and paper will do) during sessions, and a computer and internet access at home, to upload your work in progress to the online drop box, or email to the group. If you prefer to print out other people’s work to read prior to the sessions (rather than reading from a screen), you’ll need to do this at your own expense.

The tutor will be Jude Brown. Jude is a Sheffield based short story writer. Her work has won numerous awards including the Raymond Williams Community Publishing Award, the Fish Microfiction Prize and in 2013 she won a New Writing North Award. Her short stories have been published in a range of anthologies and magazines, and she was shortlisted for Bridport Short Story Prize. She is currently working on her first novel.