Creative Writing Course: Writing Great Short Prose
Course Overview
Do you love writing stories? Wish you could write with more succinct emotional impact?
This 8-week deep dive into short story writing will show you why every paragraph has purpose. Understand your characters, focus on strong beginnings and surprising endings. Increase your knowledge, expand your vocabulary and discover the joy of less is more.
Whether you are a regular or emerging writer, each week you will be writing, so bring your imagination, pen and notebook for some fun, inclusive sessions.
Course weekly overview:
What is a short story?
- Understand the difference between short stories and novel writing
- Explore different styles of writing
- Establish a writing goal and routine
Define your character
- Focus on your main characters
- Establish desires and needs
- Strengthen their unique traits
Create memorable openings
- Scriptwriting scene setting
- Lift your language
- Engage your reader
Explore different points of view
- Understand which point of view your story needs
- Analysis of published story
- Writing exercise
Inciting incidents
- What happens and why?
- Who reacts and why?
- Leaving room for more
Change your characters
- Timeframes and seasons
- External or internal influences
- Point of no return
Purposeful paragraphs
- Memorable sentences
- Expand knowledge of characters
- Meaningful plot progression
Endings. Full stop.
- A perfect ending?
- First drafts are complete
- Self-editing tools
Term Dates
Term 4 runs from Monday 26 October to Monday 14 December
What to Bring
- Notebook and pen – no laptops
- Ideas and an open mind
Expected outcomes
- Some short readings will be given each week for discussion the following week.
- Each session includes topic discussion, short readings and active writing.
- Completed self-set goal.
- Improved confidence and future plan.
This course does not specifically cover speculative fiction, romance, horror, historical fiction or crime/thriller genres but covers creative approaches for all types of prose writing.
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Helen Connealy
Helen Connealy is a storyteller, writer, experienced CEO, executive coach
and workshop facilitator. She holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University Belfast and is currently working on a poetry project and a short story collection.
Helen is a Board Director with the Irish Writers Centre, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), an accredited Strengths Profiler and a Certified Yoga Teacher. An advocate for women, writers and creativity, she is passionate about philanthropy, literature, healthcare and building social impact.
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