Introduce complex emotional worlds in your writing in this West Dean short course. Through discussion, exercises and critical reading, explore how taboo and setting can enable risk taking in writing the stories that mean something to you.
VS Pritchett says a short story should capture a character at 'bursting point'.
Remember crossing that threshold? The staff room at school, your parent's bedroom, the school bike sheds. There are many taboo places which evoke characters, actions, feelings that a writer can use to create risk for the character and the writer.
On this course you will explore how it creates desire and complication in a story. How it makes the story shift along. Working collaboratively and individually, you will take inspiration from a range of sources including memory, texts, photographs, West Dean interiors and gardens and learn how to use Taboo to create pressure and dilemma for your character in a setting. Through a series of exercises you will explore what Taboo is; notions of place, character, feelings and action; and begin to develop your own ideas.
The tutor will support you throughout with reviews, discussions, advice and recommendations for further reading to develop your writing skills.
Tutor: Marian Garvey won First Prize in The Asham Award 2007 and was shortlisted for several others. Her work has been published in several magazines including The Sunday Times and The London Magazine, and broadcast on BBC Radio .
Dates: 1 to 3 March 2019
Location: West Dean College, West Dean, Nr Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ
Course fee: £254.00
Further details and to book
here