A Happy New Writing Year to all,
Our guest speaker at the first meeting of the new session proved to be just the tonic for banishing post-festive lethargy. Laura Fyfe, an English teacher now running creative writing classes in Stirling, demonstrated her gift for language and communication with a presentation and workshop which had the audience fully engaged from start to finish.
Using examples from various well-known short story writers and encouraging members to share and discuss their own favourite short stories proved to be a winning formula. Some of the key elements of successful short story writing described by Laura were:-
- Try to write the story in one go. This helps to maintain consistency of style, content and characterisation.
- Keep it simple – there is not enough room in a short story for complex plots.
- Try to avoid the “twist in the tail” approach as a deliberate device.
For the competition, Laura has set a challenge to write a short story of from 500 to 1500 words on any preferred theme, but focussing on a single character or incident. Entries, in the usual format, to be submitted by February 20, with adjudication on April 3rd.
Best of luck!
