How to navigate and utilise the short story’s most powerful elements

With limited space, every image, character, detail and turn of events in a short story has to earn its place. Could your short stories be tighter and more impactful?

This workshop explores how writers can use short story limitations to their advantage. We’ll look at compression, implication, voice, point of view, beginnings and endings, and the art of making a small story feel much bigger than the number of words on the page.

Rather than treating the short story simply as a miniature novel, we’ll explore its particular possibilities: the moment before something changes, the detail that carries an entire history, the gap between what is said and what is meant, and the ending that continues to reverberate after the final sentence.

Inspired in part by Newlyn’s relationship with the sea, the harbour and the communities built around them, we’ll think about stories as vessels: what they carry, what they leave behind, and how little you sometimes need to suggest an entire world.

You’ll leave with a practical blueprint for shaping an utterly compelling short story, and the beginnings of a story you can continue developing after the workshop.

The workshop is 2 hours long, but there will be an (optional) half an hour extra at the end to ask any questions, or get advice about any individual projects you're working on. Please be aware that places are limited, so we recommend that you don't delay booking your place.

Description supplied by the event organiser.