Course 3

Write Your Short Story - 7 Steps To A Killer Story

If you've dreamed of winning a short story competition, or of having your short story published in a high profile magazine or anthology, then this course is for you. Over 8 sessions you will plan, write, rewrite and edit your own short story, learning how to keep your action on the story's spine and how to write powerful fiction that will keep your readers turning the pages.

Course Cost Includes:

• full instruction, with all course materials available to download in both PDF and MP3 formats
• permanent access to online classroom and forum
• personalised feedback and critique from your online writing coach
• ongoing feedback and support from online classmates.
• Permanent access to the online classroom means you can write unlimited short stories with the support and guidance of your classmates.

How This Course Works:

• This course is divided into 8 lessons, each taking approximately one week to complete. Read or listen to the lesson, complete the exercises and post your writing into your online classroom.
• Each lesson contains a series of writing exercises, culminating in you writing a scene for your short story. Your further writing exercises then help you to further explore your characters and story.
• Once you write your scenes, you are then guided through the processes of rewriting and editing your story.
• Post your writing exercises into your online classroom for daily personalised feedback from your online writing coach and other classmates. When you post, take the time to give feedback to at least two other classmates. Your generosity will return to you one hundredfold.
• You can start this course at any time and complete it at your own pace. Your writing coach is online everyday to give you feedback.

Prerequisites:

Course 1 – Free Your Imagination and Course 2 – Story Techniques, will help get the best out of this course.

Price: AUD: $365.00

* Courses can also be purchased in Pounds Sterling and US Dollars. Prices available at checkout.

• Find and plan your story.
• Revisit our amazing process to mine out the story you really want to write.
• Isolate your values and begin to build your story around them.
• Predicament - what is it, where is it, and how to use it.
• Write the first scene of your short story.

• Writing a Story Summary
• The Story Template - the 7 Steps To A Killer Short Story.
• The Desire Line - explore your character's main desire, what do they want and why?
• The Central Opposition - discover who is the most important person in your story (it's probably not who you think!)
• Write your second scene.

• Dilemma - explore ways to jam your main character between a rock and a hard place.
• The value of your main character straddling two worlds.
• Explore the issues of character vs characterisation.
• Write your third scene.

• Climax/Battle - explore the three levels of conflict as your characters face their most intense conflict of the story.
• Learn how to push them into taking action that produces an absolute and irreversible change.
• Explore the highs and lows of your characters as they face intense conflict.
• Write your fourth scene.

• Resolution - find the answer to the question asked at the beginning of your story and learn how to show that in a new action.
• Explore your story's "re-solution" by writing an ending that serves the story not the writer's ego.
• Write your fifth scene.

• Rewriting - discover a foolproof method to minimise your rewrite and maximise your story.
• Learn how to make your intention equal your result.
• The Story's Spine - how to find it, define it and rewrite around it.
• Don't revise, rewrite - letting go of your first draft.

• Editing - put the left brain back into gear to refine and polish your masterpiece.
• Follow our simple 4 step editing process.
• Less is invariably more - kill your darlings.
• Stick with the process, not the rules.

• The Next Step - Decide where you want to go with your writing and then take yourself there!
• More tips to keep you writing.