This online flash fiction course is split into distinct creation and critique weeks. We'll be using stories that have won prizes as the inspiration for the craft discussion, analysis and prompt, to help you take your flash fiction writing to the next level.
Week 1: Every day from Monday to Friday, you'll get a workshop with craft development content, a reading and associated writing prompt. You'll just write without sharing and keep focused on creation mode.
Week 2: Every day from Monday to Friday, you'll share the stories you wrote in Week 1, one per day, for feedback from the group.
Week 3: Back in creation mode with 5 more craft posts and prompts to write to from Monday to Friday.
Week 4: The final week will be focused on critiques again.
All of the course content is online 24/7 for you to access when suits you best.
LIMITED TO 8 WRITERS
Amanda Saint
Amanda started Retreat West in 2012 and launched Retreat West Books in 2017 (Winner: Most Innovative Publisher 2020 Saboteur Awards). She has been designing and teaching online courses, and live workshops, for many years and has worked as an editor on hundreds of manuscripts. She also writes The Mindful Writer and The Tao of Storytelling on Substack.
She’s the author of two novels, As If I Were A River (2016) and Remember Tomorrow (2019 ) and a novella-in-flash, Pressure Drop (2024). Her short stories and flash fictions have been widely published in journals and anthologies; long/shortlisted in many contests, including Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition, Fish Flash Fiction Prize and Flash 500; nominated for Best Small Fictions 2023; and won the Editor’s Choice Prize at 101 Words.
Really loved this course. I enjoyed having a week to think about the prompts instead of trying to write right away. Great variety of prompts and techniques to experiment with - pushed me to do things that were outside my comfort zone. I've learned a lot - so many things I will take forward with me.
I loved this course. There was time to figure out where a first draft of the story might go, how it would unfold. Doing the feedback another week from the actual writing made the course feel a lot less stressful for me, there was more time to digest everybody's writing, including my own.
A good concentrated four weeks. The time allowed to write and the variety of themes was well thought out. I appreciated the comments and have taken them on board.
This course ran for the first time in February 2024 and these are some of the stories that came from it.
