Whether you’ve dabbled in short fiction or are ready to take your work to the next level, this focused four-hour workshop is designed to sharpen your storytelling tools, deepen your understanding of the form, and inspire new work. Through discussion, examples, and hands-on exercises, you’ll explore what makes a compelling short story and how to craft one that stands out on the page and in competition.

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The workshop will open with foundational questions. What is a short story? What makes it different from a novel, novella or flash fiction? You’ll learn about the key elements of fiction, from setting, plot and characters to point of view and conflict, and how these elements come together in a powerful, compressed narrative.Next, we’ll dig into the heart of the creative process with how to turn ideas into stories, through responding to key questions and prompts. You’ll learn practical techniques for showing (not telling) who your characters are and how to reveal what they truly want. We’ll break down genre versus literary short stories, and explore how different reader expectations influence tone, style, and plot.

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A key focus will be on structure, from classic arcs to more experimental forms and how to create momentum within a limited word count. Caroline will share her Top Ten Tips for polishing and editing, including how to sharpen sentences and clarify intent.We’ll also look at finding the right competitions and literary journals for your work, and how to build your writing CV and online presence.

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To close, we’ll take a deep dive into three outstanding short stories, examining how they succeed on the page and what you can learn from them.

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This workshop is ideal for adult writers with some experience who want to deepen their craft, push their storytelling further, and walk away with new tools and possibly the seed of your next great story.