A few thousand words: That’s all a short story writer has to work with. And yet, the greatest practitioners of the form have built entire worlds, made us fall in love, and stunned us with plot-twists in the span of a single story.
This four-week course, led by Sanjena Sathian (
@sanjenasathian ) unpacks how fiction writers are able to master the short form, with special attention to structure, the invisible architecture that makes a story function. Whether you’re a writer of short fiction or a lover of long novels, there’s much to glean from closely studying how a great story is built. By honing your structural x-ray vision, you’ll begin to see how every choice—from a section break to a subtle omission—shapes the whole.
Each class session will feature an acclaimed short story writer—Tony Tulathimutte (
@tonytula ), Senaa Ahmad, Aimee Bender, and Maria Kuznetsova (
@mashawritesstuff )—with whom we’ll explore the questions that befall all fiction writers: Should you begin with character? Conceit? Voice? Should you have an ending in mind or do you work your way towards it? How do you decide what information to reveal and when? What do you leave out entirely? Hearing these varied and candid approaches will expand your notions of what’s possible and illuminate the mechanisms that make a short story sing.
This is not a workshop course—there’s no peer feedback—but you’ll generate plenty of new material through customized prompts and weekly assignments. By the end of the course, you’ll be better equipped to turn an idea or an exploratory draft into a piece of fiction that moves, breathes, and surprises, as a great story should.
Early bird pricing is available for the next three weeks, and scholarships are available! Learn more and register through the link in our bio.
