Aims of the course:
- To introduce students to the art of short story writing
- To foster an understanding of various subgenres of the short story, through guided reading and interpretive commentary
- To encourage and guide students' own experiments with the form through practical writing exercises
Learning outcomes
As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, participants should be able to:
- Recognise and appreciate the key elements of short story writing
- Deploy with some confidence key skills of short story writing
- Apply critical skills to their own writing and the writing of others
Course content overview:
- This course will begin with a consideration of what makes a short story - apart from its length - a distinct genre, introducing the elements which combine to produce the short story's unique effect.
- Each week will focus on a particular short story or stories by the genre's key exponents, to illustrate developments and variations in the genre. The story or stories will also be used to demonstrate particular technical aspects of short story writing.
- Students will discover how writers achieve certain effects and be encouraged to appropriate and experiment with these techniques in their own original writing.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):
Orientation Week: 18-24 October 2021
By studying this week the students should have:
- Become familiar with navigating around the VLE and from VLE to links and back
- Tested their ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sorted out any problems with the help of the eLearning team
- Learnt how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
- Used forums to introduce themselves to other students
- Contributed to a discussion forum to introduce themselves to other students and discuss why they are interested in the course, what they hope to get out their studies and also to respond to News item sent out on behalf of tutor
Teaching Weeks: 25 October-28 November 2021
Week 1 Event-Plot Stories?
What is a short story? What are its limitations? What characteristics do many short stories have in common? Why do short stories appear to punch above their weight? What is an event-plot story? How do they work?
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the students should have gained an understanding of why a short story is not just a story that is short, but a different kind of story. They will also recognise an event-plot story shape and have started to work with this model.
Week 2 Anti-Plot Stories
What is an anti-plot story? Why is it variously called ‘formless’, ‘Chekhovian’ and ‘slice of life’? How is it different from the event-plot story? What characteristics do they share? What makes an anti-plot story different from a sketch?
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the students should be able to recognise an anti-plot story and what distinguishes it both from the event-plot story and from the sketch. They will have started to work with the anti-plot model.
Week 3 Variations (introducing magical realism and flash fiction)
How useful are these distinctions in story types? Is it possible to combine the event-plot and the anti-plot story? What other kinds of short story are there? Are there genres and styles which are particularly suited to the short form? What is magical realism? What is flash fiction? Why are endings so important?
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the students should have an appreciation of subgenres of short story and also an understanding of the limitations of, and opportunities offered by, flash fiction. They will have had experience fashioning a conclusion and gained an understanding of the role endings play in influencing the meaning of a story.
Week 4 Characterisation and Dialogue
Regarding characterisation, what do we mean by ‘telling’ versus ‘showing’? What are their relative merits? What are the functions of dialogue? How can we use dialogue to advance plot? How can we use dialogue to reveal character? How can we give value to what is unsaid?
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the students should have gained an understanding of how to reveal character efficiently and economically and how to use dialogue both to develop character and to advance plot. They will have deployed these skills.
Week 5 Narrative Voice and Point of View
Who is telling the story and how are they telling it? What and where is the ‘centre of consciousness’? What are the respective advantages and limitations of first- and third- person narrative voice? What different kinds of third-person voice are there? What is an unreliable narrator and what is its effect? How much does the narrator ‘know’?
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the students should have a greater understanding of the significance of point of view and the range of possibilities for narrative voice. Taken together with last week’s exercise, they will now have experimented with both first- and third-person narrative voice.
Feedback Week: 19 November-5 December 2021
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards,etc).
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
What our students say
‘I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. In the space of a few weeks I've gone from a furtive scribbler who would have died of shame at the mere idea of sharing their writing, to an increasingly confident writer happy to share anything with anyone.’
'In this course I learnt to be brave and put out the assignments. … Friendly nourishing classmates helped tremendously with their positive feedback. I also enjoyed having deadlines as I felt impelled to deliver something. I learnt a lot, having no previous idea about concepts like event plot or the unreliable narrator etc… The selection of stories was compelling and I loved being able also to listen to Sarah's analysis and guidance.'
'I think a great surprise bonus of the course was being introduced to many great writers and their work that I may have not have had the opportunity to do so before. I did not realise there would be so much interaction with fellow students and it was interesting and fun to read their work too.'
'This course allowed me to overcome my writer's block with scheduled weekly assignments and a wealth of reading material to gain inspiration from. I think that going forward, I now have a much better idea of the components that make up a short story, as well as the narrative aspects that create such striking variations between each one, not to mention a huge list of writers I can look into. It has been an enriching experience, especially exploring everyone's writing and feedback.'
