The Short Story Workshop

We discuss raising the stakes, describing characters and ABCs aka Alien Big Cats in this short horror story

A winding time travel tale from the 50s that will keep you guessing. At times more of a puzzle than a story, we discuss internal consistency, our favourite time travel systems, and building character motivations.

Arsene Lupin is a gentleman thief and only steals the finest of things. We discuss the first story written about this character, who was said to be a master of disguise.

The return of Ray Bradbury with a light sci-fi story that's both funny and a little creepy. We discuss use and abuse of the 'creepy children' trope, the use of non-diegetic information in short stories and Bradbury's distinctive style.

This story contains one of the first examples of invisibility in fiction. We discuss the elements of terror and why everyone wants to be invisible.

This charming fairy tale about a talented mouse is a fun little story. We discuss happy vs ambiguous endings, the Finnish language, translation and more.

Take a journey to heaven in EM Forster's The Celestial Omnibus. We discuss snobbery in literature, transitions between worlds and try to work out some of the story's many literary references.

For more on EM Forster - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/17/e-m-forster-my-policeman

This week's story is the winner of our competition we ran at the end of last year. We talk about keeping a story moving and how to come up with a strong concept.

An unusually-titled story from Kurt Vonnegut that shows how everything can go horribly wrong, even with good intentions. We discuss the idea of collective vs individualistic ideals, dark humour, and contrasting themes.

Guy de Maupassant's naturalist writing style influenced O Henry and Kate Chopin.  This story about marriage has plenty of twists and turns. 

How to say Guy de Maupassant's name actually and properly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOkQLmlokAE&ab_channel=JulienMiquel

(With thanks to Holly and Andy for the reading material!)