New Short Story Courses for Autumn 2022

The Comma Press courses have been running online and in person across the UK for just under a decade. This autumn they are back! Explore new courses online in Science Fiction, Writing from Life and in-person in Nottingham. Book your place today.

About our Courses

As a writer development agency, we deliver our Comma Short Story Courses throughout the year, both online and in towns and cities across England. We have been running our Short Story courses for just under a decade. Over six workshop sessions, you will become familiar with short story narrative structures, and be able to apply them to their own work. The end result will be one complete story published in a Comma Press E-Book.  

Types of Courses

ONLINE GENRE SPECIFIC

Our online courses run as a fortnightly evening session over 3 months. They are genre specific and offer writers who know what they want to specialise in the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge on writing in that specific genre.

This autumn you can book onto:

Science Fiction Writing with Justina Robson 

Starts 10 August, fortnightly for 3-Months

Join award-winning author Julia Robson – ‘Sci-Fi's shining star’ (Publishing Perspectives) – for a 3-Month voyage into the genre with the greatest imaginative potential and capacity. Over 6 sessions you will get to grips with the niches of the genre, of how to write a compelling, captivating science-fiction story which will be published in a Comma Press E-Book. Book here. 

Writing from Life with Emily Morris 

Starts 13 October, fortnightly for 3-Months

Ever considered writing a short story based on an aspect of your life? From life-changing events to everyday kitchen sink conversations writing from life offers any number of starting points to craft compelling narratives and characters. Over this 3-month online writing course bestselling author Emily Morris, author of ‘My Sh*tty Twenties’, will help you discover what inspiration you can draw from your own life to inspire a short story to be published in a Comma Press E-Book anthology. Book here. 

IN PERSON PLACE CENTRED

The in-person courses run once a month for 6 months. These are city based and are led by an author based in or from that city. Inspired by our 'Reading the City' series these courses bring together local communities of writers to help them build their network and grow in confidence.

Nottingham with Bekki Burns

Starts 15 August, monthly for 6-Months

As well as being internationally renowned for the legend of Robin Hood, Nottingham has a history of rebellion – from stealing from the rich to give to the poor, to making a stand for the rights of the working classes. Be inspired by the history, culture and city of Nottingham and join local writer Rebecca Burns at Nottingham Writers Studio for this 6-month short story course. Book here. 

Structures and Fees

The sessions are 2-hours long and take place in the evenings. Usually 6-8pm. Homework assignments are set between sessions. Slack and Google Drive are used to communicate with fellow writers and to upload work.

Our aim is to keep the course ticket fees to an absolute minimum to ensure that we make the courses as accessible to as many people as possible. We offer 2x bursary tickets at 50% discount open to single-parent writers, or writers in receipt of a means tested benefit, personal independence payments, or disability living allowance. If you would like to find out more or are unsure whether you meet these requirements please contact our course lead Nia on nia.thomas@commapress.co.uk

We also partner with the TLC Free Reads Scheme which offers any low-income, disabled, Black or LGBTQIA+ writers on our courses the opportunity to get free professional feedback on their writing via The Literary Consultancy.