Summary:	Short Story Writing with Rebecca Lloyd
Type:	One to One Email Correspondence.
Duration:	10 weeks.
Fee:	£300

• 1.COMMON PITFALLS FOR NEW WRITERS.
  Covering: exposition, overuse of adjectives, over and under-use of characters’ names, use of awkward words, cliché in phrase and dialogue, using jokes, addressing the reader, use of parenthesis, unnecessary expletives, main characters and readers’ empathy, ‘detail anxiety’, changing POV, too many characters, long fight scenes. (One exercise on cliché).
  
• 2.EDITING
  Characteristics of un-edited work, what does editing mean, and how do you learn it? The importance of editing skills in short story writing, a system for approaching editing, Over-editing. (Three exercises).
  
• 3.DIALOGUE
  Elements of good dialogue, what to avoid in dialogue, point of view: the use of third person, (intimate and remote), first person. (Three exercises).
  
• 4.CHARACTERISATION
  Tips on building a strong character: keeping psychology and dialogue consistent for your character, using description, subtle ways of developing a character, engaging the empathy of the reader. (Three exercises).
  
• 5.THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NOVEL AND SHORT STORY WRITING
  What novel writing allows the writer to achieve: (different points of view, many characters, complex plot), what defines a short story? Common problems with short stories: (‘ordinariness’, MC too boring, slow beginnings, lesser character more interesting than MC, overlong time spans, story lacking credibility). (One exercise, two games).
  
• 6.SHAPE AND STRUCTURE
  Literary versus non-literary stories, the short story’s relationship to poetry, use of flashback, metaphor and symbolism in story writing, juxtaposing the different scenes, ‘theme’ in short story writing. (No exercises).
  
• 7.SHAPE AND STRUCTURE CONTINUED
  How to destroy the shape of a short story, getting the right level of setting, character and plot: (‘what do I want the reader to think, feel and reflect upon?’), pouring a story onto a page, balancing different elements to create the shape of the story, more on points of view. (Two exercises).
  
• 8.STYLE
  What is style?, wordiness, exposition, active and passive verbs, the writer’s ‘voice’, imitating other writers, the unfinished sentence, ‘stream of consciousness’ and ‘inspiration’, obscure words and phrases, the sounds that words make.
  
• 9.GETTING SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED.
  How to deal with rejections, how to keep track of your work, terms publishers use, getting the timing right, word number and page format, response time, knowing where to place your work, when to withdraw it, online magazines, anthologies.
  
• 10. WRITING TIPS, SUMMING UP.
  Avoiding clumsy tags in dialogue, changing point of view, extra copies, first paragraphs and titles, finding material, reading, rejections, sending submissions, starting new stories, throwing work away, different uses of dialogue in story writing.

Comments by Rebecca's pupils