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: 11th February, 2025
Duration: Six weeks
Price: €190
3 places remaining
Welcome to the Writing Dark and Uncanny Fiction Course: Unleash Your Narrative Potential
Are you prepared to elevate your creative writing abilities? Our online Writing Dark and Uncanny Fiction Course presents an ideal opportunity for writers to both begin and refine their skills in crafting haunting narratives that linger in the minds of readers. Through immersive lessons, engaging prompts, and insightful feedback, you’ll explore the intricacies of dark themes, unsettling characters, and eerie atmospheres. Whether you’re a beginner eager to dive into the genre or an experienced writer looking to sharpen your voice, this course will provide the tools and inspiration you need to create compelling and chilling stories. Join us on this journey into the shadows of the imagination, where your darkest ideas can take flight.
Personalised Support from Dedicated Instructors
Our experienced instructors are excited to offer tailored feedback each week. By submitting your work for review, you’ll receive invaluable insights to help elevate your writing.
Global Accessibility & Lifetime Access to Resources
Our courses are open to aspiring writers from all around the world. Plus, you’ll have lifetime access to all course materials once the course concludes, so you can revisit lessons whenever you need a boost.
High Demand & Early Registration Recommended
With strong interest in our Writing Dark and Uncanny Fiction Course, we encourage early registration to secure your place. Don’t miss this chance to refine your writing skills and unleash your storytelling potential.
Course Overview
This six-week online course provides a flexible and engaging learning experience tailored for busy schedules. With no set class times, you can move through weekly text-based modules at your own pace, dedicating 2-3 hours each week to enhance your writing craft.
Each week, you’ll explore new topics, diving into the finer points of creative writing. Through interactive exercises, you’ll develop your fiction writing and expand your storytelling toolkit.
What to Anticipate Week by Week
Module 1: Feeding your Fears to Fiction?
In this first module, we’ll look at what is meant by ‘Dark Fiction’ and start considering
starting points and ‘narrative springboards’ that aim to excite and entertain your
reader. We’ll explore how to convey the thrill and begin our journey into darkness.
Module 2: Unlikeable Characters
Compelling characters don’t have to be likeable – in fact unlikeable characters can often
provide much more narrative drive, as well as developing a shudder-worthy story. We’ll
tackle creating characters you might not want to be friends with in real life, but who will
be utterly memorable.
Module 3: Location Location Location
Where you set your story is a vital element to creating the right kind of atmosphere and
tone of the piece. We’ll experiment with those places – real and imagined – that can
inspire the kind of feeling you want to evoke.
Module 4: The Uncanny
We’ll examine what is meant by ‘the uncanny’ and how we can imbue our writing with
elements of the weird and the eerie. We’ll look at some contemporary themes and how
the everyday can be conveyed as bizarre in uncanny fiction.
Module 5: The Hook
We’ll learn about and practise ways of hooking our audience into our stories and of
maintaining their interest. We’ll pull them into the darkness of the story using a variety
of writerly techniques and styles.
Module 6: Putting it Together
In this final module, we’ll work on structure and endings. We’ll tackle the brutality of
editing and how this can really sharpen up that sense of foreboding and we’ll hunker
down on polishing an unsettling, powerful, dark story that will entertain and chill the
spines of our readers.
Come Along!
Embark on this creative journey and uncover the writer within you. Register now for our Writing Dark and Uncanny Fiction Course and let your imagination take flight!