Short Story Writing (Credit) (10 credit points)

Pre-requisites for enrolment

No previous experience required.

Content of Course

1. Introduction to genre and starting a short story.

The development of storytelling from oral traditions literature. Close reading: extracts from True Tales of American Life, Paul Auster, (ed.).

2. Developing a voice: monologues.

Close reading: Muriel Spark & Donald Barthelme.

3. Character

How to build up a character in your writing: the importance of using description and choosing details that reveal the character’s person. Close reading: Walter Kirn & Ashapurna Debi.

4. Point of view: limitations and freedoms in short stories.

Discussion: Examine the differences between first and third person narrators, using examples. Charles Johnson & Hassan Blasim.

5. Developing your story structure.

The classic plot – catalyst, build-up, conflict/crisis and resolution – or not. Jhumpa Lahiri & Ben Lerner.

6. Dialogue.

What can a writer bring to dialogue on the page? Students will contribute based on their observations. James Kelman & Tobias Wolff.    

7. A sense of place/setting.

Writers’ use place/setting in their work? Katherine Mansfield & Ernest Hemingway.

8. Reality vs Fantasy.

The uses of fantasy/realism in fiction; imagery and metaphor. Jorge Luis Borges, Camilla Grudova, Richard Brautigan & Samanta Schweblin. 

9. Form.

Form and what is a short story: A selection of short fictions, Lydia Davis, Diane Williams & Ben Pester.

10. Students’ stories.

Students read their own work and discuss story endings. The class will be devoted mainly to reading and discussion of students’ work, as well as a brief discussion about story endings.

Teaching method(s)

Each two hour session will comprise of four elements: discussion of assignments and work in progress; practical writing exercises in class and given as assignments; close reading and discussion of texts – one per week, related to the theme of each class; individual feedback to be provided as and when appropriate.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Write complete short stories;

• Turn ideas into stories;

• Develop narrative structures;

• Develop their own writer’s ‘voice’.

Sources

Core Readings

Essential:

Handouts will be provided.

Auster, P., 2002. True Tales of American Life. London: Faber & Faber

Brautigan, R., 2006. Revenge of the Lawn. Edinburgh: Canongate Books

Bartheleme, D., 2005. Forty Stories. London: Penguin Books

Blasim, H. 2013. The Iraqi Christ. London: Comma Press

Beckett, S., 2009. Company, Ill Seen Ill said, etc. London: Faber and Faber

Borges, L., 2000. Fictions. London: Penguin Books

Debi, A., 2013. Brahma’s Weapon. Createspace Independent Publishing.

Davis, L., 2011. Collected Stories. London: Penguin Books

Ford, R., 2008. The Granta Book of the American Short Story. London: Granta Books Gardner, J., 1991. The Art of Fiction. London: Vintage Books

Grudova, C., 2017. The Doll’s Alphabet. London: Fitzcarraldo Editions. Hemingway, E., 1995. The First Forty Nine Stories. London: Arrow Books

Kafka, F., 2007. Metamorphosis and Other Stories. London: Penguin Books

Kelman, J., 2014. A Lean Third. London: Tangerine Press

Lahiri, J., 2019. Interpreter of Maladies. London: Fourth Estate

Mandelbaum, P., 2005. 12 Short Stories and their Making. New York: Persea Press

Mansfield, K., 2008. Selected Stories. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Pester, B., 2020. Am I in the Right Place? Norwich: Boiler House Press

Spark, M., 2002. Collected Stories. London: Penguin Books

Williams, D. 2016. FINE, FINE, FINE, FINE, FINE. San Francisco: McSweeney’s

Web Sources

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/fiction

http://www.theshortstory.org.uk

http://www.fishpublishing.com/index.php

Class Handouts

Handouts will be provided.

Assessments

10 credit courses have one assessment. Normally, the assessment is a 2000 word essay, worth 100% of the total mark, submitted by week 12. To pass, students must achieve a minimum of 40%. There are a small number of exceptions to this model which are identified in the Studying for Credit Guide.

Studying for Credit

If you choose to study for credit you will need to allocate significant time outwith classes for coursework and assessment preparation. Credit points gained from this course can count towards the Certificate of Higher Education.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email COL@ed.ac.uk or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.