Sunday 5 June 2011

SHORT STORY WORKSHOP - IRELAND


A week-long workshop at the marvellous Anam Cara Writers' and Artists' Retreat, with participants who had travelled from Holland, Luxembourg, the UK and Ireland itself. Their standard was very strong. I worked them very hard - three and a half hours each morning, a mix of flash writing games, discussions about theory, writing exercises that could, if used well, lead to complete stories, regular time spent analysing short fiction by well-known writers (stories selected and brought along for the purpose by the team, and used as guinea-pigs for both 'reading as writers' and our critiquing skills) and regular critiquing of the participants' own work. We focussed closely on revision skills, and put everything into practice as soon as possible! Afternoons were for their own writing, thinking, focus - visits, sometimes.
A word about the group critiquing...we deliberately protected precious first drafts from the onslaught. We spent the first few days dissecting old pieces they knew weren't working - giving the writers a chance to start new pieces each day, a chance to revisit and make sharper, but mostly to gain a little distance from their 'babies'. (It was forcing the issue, really - normally, I'd push for weeks of time elapsed..)And we critiqued to a pattern, by craft element, backing everything up with text examples. It seemed to work really well.
Five writers, and by the end of the week, at the last count, 14 new full-length short stories completed to at least second draft stage. (I think...) Umpteen pieces of flash fiction, many of them ready to get out there...and a hoard of story seeds. Some poetry, prose poems, some written commentaries. We all had one-to ones, one held at a local pub, another on a long walk... some intrepid souls had swum in the river, some had walked and walked some more. Some visited the Stone Lady to have their stones 'read' there were massages, reflexology for the non-ticklish.

We talked competitions, markets, collections, publishers, agents, how the writing of short fic can help with novels and novellas... and a hundred other things. I don't know about them, but their tutor is tired out...and very happy with the formula, especially regarding the group feedback. And delighted at the amazing output!

6 comments:

  1. Looks, and sounds amazing. Very inspirational.

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  2. It was such an inspiring week at Anam Cara – lots of hard work and lots of fun. I loved that we really got down to the nitty gritty of short story writing – dissecting published work and our own stories and got lots of writing done too. I’ve come away with two stories, flash fiction, a prose poem and lots of story seeds. The workshop really opened my eyes to different ways of writing and approaching writing and now that I’m home I’ve got some valuable tools to help me progress my stories. Thanks Vanessa!

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  3. Look forward to seeing your name in lights, Tracy - loads of good luck - glad you enjoyed the workshop. Thank you so much for your participation, and for sharing your work. vx

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  4. I can't believe the amount of work done. Thanks for giving your formula. Sometimes I wonder what is most effective when running workshops. I've never run such an extensive one though, just a few hours at most, but I'm always lost about what to do. I think your students must have learned so much.

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  5. Hi Lauri - I made up several exercises designed to open up a new story, and took tried and tested ones and tweaked them - happy to share! email me.

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  6. Sounds very very inspiring! A little scary but lots of good energy flowing. Best wishes with everything, cat

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