The ‘Competition’ Short Story with David Butler

Course Summary

The course is aimed at anyone interested in understanding and developing effective short stories of 2000 words or less, specifically those aimed at literary competitions and/or print publications with tight word counts. What structures work? What themes? How important is voice? And character arc? Should the story have a strong ‘punchline’? Should the judge’s or editor’s tastes be taken into consideration?

Course Outline

Participants will be focusing on aspects such as structure, character, theme and voice through (a) a consideration of exemplary stories and (b), more importantly, through the workshopping of their own writing. Every participant will be expected to present a story-in-progress, working to a strict 2000 word limit, for assessment and critical feedback from the group.

There is no requirement to submit work in advance of the course.

Course Outcomes

While writing to a strict word limit may seem artificial or arbitrary, this discipline has been essential to the development of the story from the days of Maupassant and Chekhov. Participants will be encouraged to explore the variety of what may be achieved in this form. Vital skills such as how to edit and cut will be foregrounded. Also, how to imply, to avoid redundancies and to ‘trust the reader’.

Arlen House recently published David Butler’s third story collection, White Spirits, while his sixth novel, Scorched Earth, will be published by Dedalus Books (Irl) this October. Awards for the short story include the Maria Edgeworth (twice), Benedict Kiely, Colm Tóibín, ChipLit Fest, ITT/Redline and Fish International, while his stories have been placed or shortlisted in numerous contents, such as the Francis McManus, Bath, Bristol, Bridport, Scottish Arts, Olga Sinclair, and London Magazine.

Review of City of Dis on Kirkus Review

Review of The Judas Kiss on Publishers’ Weekly