The work of course participants will be as highly valued as the extracts included from published writers. The classes will be focused around you and your writing. We will use objects, memories and life experience to develop ideas for stories that explode on the page. Inspired by what we read we’ll begin crafting our own stories, focusing on: characterisation, beginnings and endings, plotting, creating conflict, point of view and dialogue. In these workshops you will be reading and studying extracts from some of the great short story writers including Anton Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield, Alice Munro and Raymond Carver as well as contemporary writers like Kevin Barry and Claire Keegan. The confidence and skills acquired could lead into making an application for an accredited course at the university like the MA in Creative and Life Writing. This course will not only serve as an excellent introduction to the short story but will open up the possibility for students to take further creative writing courses at Goldsmiths and deepen their understanding. Goldsmiths has respect from the literary industry in the form of the Pat Kavanagh prize and the Goldsmiths Prize, established in 2013 to celebrate the qualities of creative daring associated with the university and to reward fiction that breaks the mold or opens up new possibilities for the novel form. In 2021, the £10,000 prize was awarded to Isabel Waidner's Sterline Karat Gold. We have award-winning former students like Evie Wyld, Ross Raisin and short story writer, Tom Lee. Goldsmiths is home to a world renowned creative writing department that is experimental, risk-taking and exciting. It will appeal to students who have a passion for fiction (not necessarily short stories) and a desire to try out different approaches to writing short fiction. The course is designed for all levels, from complete beginners to more practised writers who are keen to try out the challenges of the short form. They are also great practice for longer form narratives many well-known writers cut their first literary teeth on short stories. They are exciting to write, are intensely character-driven and offer the reader tantalising miniature worlds. Short stories are a great way into creative writing they demand discipline, water-tight prose and originality.
ENGLISH SHORT STORIES TO WRITE HOW TO
This course is an excellent introduction to the short story, how to decode the best ones and begin to write your own. I will be enrolling in another course with Gio in the spring! Each class was dynamic, active, and filled with diverse perspectives - each voice in the room was heard. I use many of those workshop lessons in my daily writing practice. She's an incredible teacher with vast literary knowledge that she wove into discussions. Our writing became stronger, bolder, and more distinct. Gio created a warm environment in which students felt comfortable taking risks she encouraged us to experiment.
This is what this course did really well in a practical hands-on way. A lot of courses bandy this word around but seldom explain it in detail. I learnt many valuable skills, in particular, 'Show and Tell'. Lucy took the time over 5 weeks to get to know me and my project, to listen, and to understand what I was trying to achieve and gear her feedback accordingly.