Start date: 03rd January 2024

Limited to 12 writers (9 spaces left)

Cost:

£175 paid in full

£180 paid over 3 instalments of £60

Do you keep writing the same kinds of stories, in the same kinds of voices, about the same kinds of subjects over and over again? This new course from Amanda Saint will blast you out of that writing rut and get you trying new styles, new subjects and creating lots of new work to develop further outside the course.

A 6-week course with content accessible online to work through in your own time, it also includes:

• A forum to chat and share work with other writers on the course;
• A 1-hour mentoring session with Amanda after the course ends to develop one of the stories you create. This will be scheduled at a mutually agreeable time in the two weeks after the online element of the course is completed.
• Detailed editorial feedback on the edited draft after the mentoring session. You can send Amanda the edited version of the story for further written feedback to help you refine it further (must be sent within 3 weeks of the mentoring session). The max word count for the story for the mentoring and feedback is 2,000 words. If you write flashes for the course, you can get feedback on two stories for this element of the course.

Each week will have craft development aspects, story readings, exercises and a new work prompt to get you trying new things and having fun with your craft, while taking your writing in new directions. Each workshop is posted online in a dedicated space on our community site for you to work through at your own pace.

Suitable for writing flash fictions and short stories.

Course tutor:

Amanda Saint 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’s the author of two novels, As If I Were A River (2016), which was longlisted for the Guardian Not The Booker Prize, a NetGalley Top 10 Book of the Month and a Book Magnet Blog Top 20 Book of 2016; and Remember Tomorrow (2019 ). She has just completed a novella-in-flash and is now working on her third novel.

Amanda’s short stories have been widely published; long/shortlisted in the Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition, Fish Flash Fiction Prize, Ink Tears Short Story Prize, Cranked Anvil Short Story Competition, Flash 500 and V300; nominated for Best Small Fictions 2023; and won the Editor’s Choice Prize at 101 Words. She is training to be a mindfulness teacher and counsellor and writes The Mindful Writer and The Tao of Storytelling.