The Short Story

“It was a great workshop and we had a wonderful guest speaker! I learned a generative process for writing a short story that I plan to use moving forward. I surprised myself by being able to complete a (very) short story overnight, especially as my ‘morning pages’ had not been sparking ideas that led to stories. I learned a lot about structure, and the feedback I received gave me a point of departure for revisions. I loved being free to experiment with narrative form and tried some things I had not before.”

KL, January 22, 2023

“I enjoyed the workshop immensely; it was so engaging. I really liked the format and I am in awe at how well [the presenter] ran the two days. I’m very glad I joined.

As a complete novice I was starting from scratch but I came away armed with the tools and techniques to create a short story from beginning to end.

Writing this story gave me confidence to give writing a proper go and start a regular practice. I would be very interested in joining future workshops!”

EM, January 22, 2023

“It was wonderful to be in the workshop among like-minded writers, despite my anxiety. The short story is a form I hadn’t really paid attention to until a friend gave me a copy of Alice Munro’s The Love of a Good Woman.

During the workshop I learned ways of structuring a story. I will certainly continue to write!”

EV, January 22, 2023

“Thank you so much for the intense workshop, it was a perfect weekend warm-up. During the workshop, I learned how to structure and end a story in new ways. It was great training for writing quickly (overnight), especially given that I usually work slowly.

I plan to continue working on my piece, and I am looking forward to future workshops.”

Dasha, January 22, 2023

“Looking back, three things stand out among the weekend’s takeaways, all of which are very valuable to me:

1) I expanded my literary vocabulary

2) I learned about writing tricks/devices employed by more experienced writers

3) I realized my own work can entertain people!

I am interested in additional workshops – as well as any smaller courses/feedback groups where we read and discuss each other’s work.”

Hannes, January 22, 2023

“My goal for the weekend was to make the experience as simple as possible, so that I could carefully evaluate the principles learned at the workshop. In that sense, I learned the principles of writing a short story, including 3-part story structure. I especially enjoyed freewriting and writing with prompts; both will go a long way in my personal and professional lives.”

Luz, January 22, 2023

“I learned so much in such a short period of time. Not only did we dive deep into how to structure a compelling short story and how to build and flesh out characters, but, thanks to the feedback we received from each other and the instructor, I learned more about where my strengths are and how I can build on them in the future.

The free-writing we did during the workshop reminded me of one of my favourite (writing) quotes: ‘You can always edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.’ This workshop was a reminder that, even though I can learn all about structure, style and technique, it all starts with generating. Writing brings me joy, but perfectionism holds me back a lot. It’s okay to just write for the sake of it; not everything needs to be a masterpiece. Mastering a craft takes practice, so I might as well get my reps in.”

Chloé, January 22, 2023

“I find it difficult to express one main thing I learned because there were many little golden nuggets throughout the course that really helped me understand the short-story format better. It was great to have other writers ask questions about my piece that I hadn’t come up with myself; it taught me about how others view my stories. The addition of the guest speaker at the very end of the course was also great; Andrew Porter offered us his amazingly useful perspective on what it means to be a writer.”

Joy Florentine, January 22, 2023