Writing Short Stories – Advanced (Zoom)
Applications
Writing Short Stories – Advanced
Write innovative short fiction with expert teaching, workshops and tutorials from award-winning short story writer Cynan Jones.
Tutor
Cynan JonesLength
9 weeksLocation
Online,ZoomWriting Goal
Develop your writingMaster the art of writing short stories with Cynan Jones, BBC National Short Story Award-winner.
Inspiring and practical, with weekly teaching and workshopping on Wednesday evenings, this new nine-week Zoom course will help you develop your technique and learn how to write taut, powerful stories where every word counts.
Each week, you’ll join a group of 15 talented writers to discuss what makes a great piece of short fiction, with practical advice to help you inhabit your text and explore your chosen themes in exciting and impactful ways. Your tutor, award-winning short story writer Cynan Jones, will look specifically at how to begin and end a story, develop characters and voice, use imagery, and show the passage of time. He will also provide guidance on editing and how to get your stories out into the world.
You’ll also have the opportunity to discuss one of your stories with Cynan during an in-depth one-to-one tutorial, and attend two exclusive masterclasses with special guests including esteemed novelist and short story writer Tessa Hadley.
This course is ideal for those already at work on short fiction – perhaps you enjoyed our six-week online Writing Short Stories course and want to take the next step. Or maybe you’ve been submitting to competitions and journals or have published in other forms and would like to improve your knowledge and appreciation of the genre.
The course will run from 8 April to 3 June 2025.
Tutor
Cynan Jones
Cynan Jones is the author of five novels, published in over 20 countries. He has won the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize, a Betty Trask Award, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, and the BBC National Short Story Award, for which he was also on the 2019 judging panel. His short stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies and in journals and magazines including Granta and the New Yorker. He has also written a screenplay for the hit crime drama Hinterland, a collection of tales for children, and stories for BBC Radio. Stillicide, a collection of 12 short stories, was commissioned by Radio 4 and published by Granta. Cynan was the RLF Writing Fellow at Aberystwyth University, and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature was a member of the RSL Open Panel, convened to elect writers from under-represented communities. He has worked extensively with schools and writing groups, and tutored on short fiction and editing for the Arvon Foundation and Literature Wales.
WHAT DOES THIS COURSE GIVE YOU?
- Live teaching on Zoom: On Tuesday evenings tutor Cynan Jones will deliver teaching sessions of one hour and 45 minutes. Each session will include an hour of workshopping (three students will have their work discussed each week), followed by teaching on topics including how to begin and end a story, establish a strong voice, use imagery to powerful effect, handle causation and express time.
- Writing workshops: You’ll get a dedicated workshop centring on a 3,000-word story (or extract from a story) during the course. Workshops offering in-depth feedback from your fellow students and tutor and are also designed to help develop your self-editing skills. Three stories will be workshopped per week – with discussion continuing on our bespoke, interactive forum after class.
- One-to-one tutorials: Each student will have a 45-minute tutorial with Cynan, based on a 5,000-word story. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss what’s working well in a story and what could be improved, as well as address any specific concerns you have about your writing of short fiction.
- Industry masterclasses: Join two exclusive live Zoom sessions – one with celebrated short story writer Tessa Hadley and one still to be announced. Our special guests will draw on their experience of writing and publishing short stories and share their insights with you. You will have the opportunity to ask questions.
- A community of writers: Our selective process means that you will be joining a peer group of 15 students working at a high level. Many of our former students have found trusted readers with us and formed strong working friendships that go on long after the course is over.
- Alumni services and submission support: At the end of the course, you’ll be given access to a range of exclusive writing services, available only to the alumni of our selective courses. These services include one-to-one mentoring, editorial reports on your writing, and submission reports on your ‘pitch package’. If you would like to submit your stories formally to the agents at Curtis Brown and C&W, the CBC team will help you to do so. Read more about the opportunities available to our alumni here.
Masterclass speakers
Tessa Hadley
Tessa Hadley has published eight novels – including The Past, Late in the Day, and Free Love – and four collections of short stories – including Bad Dreams and After the Funeral. She publishes short stories regularly in the New Yorker, and reviews for the Guardian and the London Review of Books; she was awarded a Windham Campbell prize for Fiction and the Hawthornden Prize in 2016, and the Edge Hill Prize in 2018. She lives in Cardiff. Photo by Sophie Davidson.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Please note that the precise dates of these Zoom sessions, details of course speakers, and topics are subject to change.
PROVOKING THE STORY
Tues 8 Apr, 7–8.45pmDETAIL & DELIVERY
Tues 15 Apr, 7–8.45pmINHABITING YOUR TEXT
Tues 22 Apr, 7–8.45pmEXPERIMENTING
Tues 29 April, 7–8.45pmGUEST MASTERCLASS WITH TESSA HADLEY
Tues 6 May, 7–8.45pmASSESSING THEME & CONTENT
Tues 13 May, 7–8.45pmHONING AT THE SENTENCE-LEVEL
Tues 20 May, 7–8.45pmGUEST MASTERCLASS WITH TBC
Tues 27 May, 7–8.45pmQ&A PLENARY & CONCLUSION
Tues 3 Jun, 7–8.45pm
COURSE FEES
The course fee of £1,100 (inc VAT) per student is payable, in full, by bank transfer or cheque before the start of the course. However, if you are unable to pay the full fee upfront, let us know and we can arrange an instalment plan.
READY TO APPLY?
Our application form asks some questions about you and your writing – and it also asks you to send us a short story of up to 3,000 words. (Alternatively, you can send us an extract from a piece of short fiction along with a brief overview of what happens in the rest of the story – totalling no more than 3,000 words). Please note, to be accepted on to this course you do not have to be a published short story writer. However, if you have been published in web or print journals/magazines please let us know in your application.
The CBC team will select applicants based on the quality of the writing sample provided. The deadline for applications is midnight, end of day Sunday 9 March, and we will respond to applicants by Thursday 13 March 2025.
We read all application material promptly after the closing date and make our selection of students swiftly at that time. However if you require an earlier response from us in order to be able to take part in this course, please email us with full details and we will consider and respond on a case by case basis.
If you encounter any problems during the application process, or have any more questions about the course, please email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk for assistance.
SCHOLARSHIP PLACE
The Breakthrough Scholarship for Short Story Writers with Low Income will award one talented writer limited financial means a place on this nine-week course. Deadline Sunday 16 March.
Breakthrough Scholarship for Short Story Writers with Low Income
