TUTOR: Kerry Hadley-Pryce has had three novels published by Salt Publishing: The Black Country (Michael Schmidt Prize); Gamble (shortlisted for The Encore Award) and God’s Country. Her fourth novel, Lie of the Land, is due for publication by Salt Publishing in 2025. She has a PhD in creative writing from Manchester Metropolitan University, teaches creative writing, and has contributed to Palgrave’s Smell, Memory & Literature in the Black Country anthology. She has had short stories published in Best British Short Stories 2023, Takahe Magazine, Fictive Dream and The Incubator and read by Brum Radio.
Start Date: 8th October, 2024
Duration: Six weeks
Price: €170
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Course Outline
Module 1: Flash Fiction
When does a short story become ‘flash fiction’ – or vice versa? What’s the difference, anyway? In this module, we’ll be looking at the way brevity can work in our narrative, exploring flash, short, and micro fictions and practising some practical ways of sharpening up your narrative style.
Module 2: Ekphrasis in Short Stories
The dictionary definition of ekphrasis means ‘to describe a work of art,’ and ekphrastic writing has traditionally been associated with poetry, but we’ll be using it to inspire short stories. We’ll consider how visual images can work for us creatively, illustrating how art and image can both inspire and inhabit our short stories.
Module 3: Stories out of the Everyday
In this module, we’ll be working our creative muscles to explore ways in which, by looking at the ‘ordinary’, we can enliven our narrative style and produce a satisfying and compelling short story.
Module 4: Active Writing
This module aims to encourage you to experiment with your narrative voice by exploring ways to ‘find stories’ and to convey them in an original way.
Module 5: Stealing Stories
T. S. Eliot said, ‘Mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal.’ And here’s Mark Twain: ‘There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.’ In this penultimate module, we’ll be looking at ways to harvest the premise of a story and to develop our own ways of structuring and owning it.
Module 6: Endings
The best way to complete a short story course is to explore ‘endings’. In this module, we’ll be looking at the different ways you could end your story. We’ll read some examples and consider, amongst other things: ‘to twist or not to twist?’ Open or closed endings? Circular or linear?