Courses > Short story writing

Our short story writing course is made up of ten lessons that cover the following topics. Click on a link below to find out more about a lesson. Each lesson is accompanied by exercise work and you will be invited to work on your own ideas as well during the course.

• Lesson 1: The Techniques of Dialogue
• Lesson 2: The Basic Format for Short Stories up to 2,000 words
• Lesson 3: Facial Expressions
• Lesson 4: Emotion in the Short Story
• Lesson 5: Making Your Characters See
• Lesson 6: Motion
• Lesson 7: Gestures
• Lesson 8: Types of Stories I Buy and Do Not Buy
• Lesson 9: Writing for the Top Quality Magazines
• Lesson 10: Master Check List

Lesson 1: The Techniques of Dialogue

This lesson covers:

• The four basic functions of dialogue
• Popular adverbs to use with 'said'
• The 120 qualifying adverbs- Examples of usage
• Alternatives to 'said'
• Tone-of-voice adjectives- Examples of usage
• Use of comparisons and figures of speech - Examples of usage
• Direct description of the voice - Examples of usage
• "Manner of delivery"
• Phrases, using 'with' or 'in'
• Wordless sounds, such as sighs, grunts, snorts, coughs - Ways of describing them
• The pause or silence
• Ways of saying what the conversation has sputtered to a stop
• Exercise work

Lesson 2: The Basic Format for Short Stories up to 2,000 words

This lesson covers:

• (1) The beginning - What your story must tell the reader in the first third of it
• (2) The Middle - Dramatisation of the struggle of the main character to achieve his purpose and solve his problem
• (3) The Ending - Solution of the problem and how to put it across
• The vital ingredients of a short story
• Deciding the main character
• Motive for the story
• Summary
• Exercise work

Lesson 3: Facial Expressions

This lesson covers:

• Examples of general facial behaviour as a device in characterisation and in emotional content
• Examples of the expression of the EYE
• the movement of the EYEBROWS
• The movement of the MOUTH
• The movement of the FACE
• The movement of the JAW
• The movement of the LIPS
• Numerous ways of describing the action of BLUSHING
• Exercise work

Lesson 4: Emotion in the Short Story

This lesson covers:

• The entertainment value
• The emotional content
• (1) READER EMOTION and
• (2) CHARACTER EMOTION
• List of reader emotions
• List of character emotions
• Three ways of revealing character-emotions and reader-emotions
• Descriptive ways of expressing the principal reader emotions of FEAR, ANGER, WEEPING, ASTONISHMENT
• Reactions of the HEART
• Exercise work

Lesson 5: Making Your Characters See

This lesson covers:

• Four principal functions of VISUAL ACTION defined
• Professional ways of making your story actors "look", "leer", "Glance", "watch", "roll their gaze round", "turn their (burning) eyes to", "sweep a frosty glance at"
• Other characters and things
• Exercise work
• Fiction for the Women's Magazine: The importance of emotional argument
• Types of stories required by the popular weeklies
• Keeping a Calendar of events
• Length of stories
• Kinds of plots that are popular
• The poached eggs and coffee story
• Reader identification techniques
• Creating a convincing background
• Writing your own stories with an eye to attractive illustrations
• The never-failing theme of LOVE
• Treatment
• The importance of good title
• Practical ways of finding story ideas

Lesson 6: Motion

This lesson covers:

• During your story your characters will be moving from place to place, getting from trains, sitting down, getting up, shuffling out of bedrooms, scuffling from door to door and so on
• Beginning writers, and not a few professional ones often feel they haven't the right words or phrases to propel their characters along
• Here is a profusion of professional idioms to describe your characters moving from place to place
• The art of twist endings
• THE BITER BIT
• Classic blue-print for the most popular type of crime story with its twist (and sometimes double-twist) ending
• The main source for "Biter-bit" ideas and how to recognise them
• A published short story Trixie and the Burglar
• Eight synopses of other "Biter-bit" that have appeared in other popular newspapers and magazines
• Exercise work

Lesson 7

This lesson covers:

• A comprehensive list of sentences and phrases to describe the gesticulations of your actors - what your characters do with their HANDS, FINGERS, ARMS, ELBOWS, LEGS, NECK, etc.
• Exercise work

Lesson 8: Types of Stories I Buy and Do Not Buy

This lesson covers:

• Exercise work

Lesson 9

This lesson covers:

• Exercise work

Lesson 10

This lesson covers:

• Twelve check points to make your stories saleable
• Exercise work