Getting Started with Short Stories Information

Getting Started with Short Stories by Ryan O’Neill is designed to help writers develop their creative writing skills through short fiction.

A self-paced, on-demand course from award-winning author Ryan O’Neill

Writing short fiction is a great way to develop your creative writing skills.

As well as being an art form in its own right, short fiction can be a laboratory for you to try out new and strange ideas; it can be a training ground in which you can build up your writing muscles before attempting a longer form such as a novel; and it can be a playground, in which you can have lots of fun.

In this three-hour course from award-winning short story author Ryan O’Neill, you will:

• learn the most important elements that make up a short story: setting, characterisation, point of view and plot
• find reading recommendations and writing advice, including how to spark story ideas
• complete a variety of writing exercises to build your short fiction skills

What You’ll Learn In Getting Started with Short Stories?

Module 1: Introduction to Short Stories

• Welcome
• Meet Your Tutor (2:11)
• What is a Short Story?
• Short Story Collections Reading List

Module 2: Setting

• Introduction to Setting
• Exercise 2.1: Country Road Night
• Exercise 2.2: A Different Atmosphere
• Exercise 2.3: Five Objects
• Exercise 2.4: Location, Time & Atmosphere

Module 3: Characterisation

• Introduction to Character
• Direct vs Indirect Characterisation
• Characterisation Example
• Exercise 3.1: Old Italian Woman
• Exercise 3.2: “Bullet” Rewritten
• Exercise 3.3: Do You Have the Time?

Module 4: Point of View

• Introduction to POV
• Exercise 4.1: POV
• Third Person Narration
• Exercise 4.2: Third Person Practice
• Exercise 4.3: Third Person Objective Practice

Module 5: Story Ideas and Plot

• Sparking Ideas
• Exercise 5.1: Take Your Notepad for a Walk
• Exercise 5.2: What Happens Next?
• Exercise 5.3: Life Is Messy
• Exercise 5.4: Experiment!
• Exercise 5.5: Choose a Title
• Plot and Structure
• Plot and Structure Examples
• Exercise 5.6: From Beginning to End

What’s Next?

• Final Words
• Recommended Contemporary Australian Short Story Collections
• Looking for feedback?
• Course Evaluation Survey

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