Writing the Short Story

Tuesdays: July 7 - 28
7 - 9:30 p.m. EST

Led by SANJENA SATHIAN
with guest authors Maria Kuznetsova, Aimee Bender, Senaa Ahmad, & Tony Tulathimutte

$420 ($370 until May 21)

A few thousand words: That’s all a short story writer has to work with. And yet, the greatest practitioners of the form have built entire worlds, made us fall in love, and stunned us with plot-twists in the span of a single story. 

This four-week course unpacks how fiction writers are able to master the short form, with special attention to structure, the invisible architecture that makes a story function. Whether you’re a writer of short fiction or a lover of long novels, there’s much to glean from closely studying how a great story is built. By honing your structural x-ray vision, you’ll begin to see how every choice—from a section break to a subtle omission—shapes the whole. 

Each class session will feature an acclaimed short story writer—Tony Tulathimutte, Senaa Ahmad, Aimee Bender, and Maria Kuznetsova—with whom we’ll explore the questions that befall all fiction writers: Should you begin with character? Conceit? Voice? Should you have an ending in mind or do you work your way towards it? How do you decide what information to reveal and when? What do you leave out entirely? Hearing these varied  and candid approaches will expand your notions of what’s possible and illuminate the mechanisms that make a short story sing. 

You’ll respond to writing prompts inspired by the short stories we read and discuss each week and undertake several reading-for-craft exercises designed to sharpen structural awareness. By the end of the course, you’ll be better equipped to turn an idea or an exploratory draft into a piece of fiction that moves, breathes, and surprises, as a great story should.

In this course, you can expect to:

• Understand how to break fiction into its component parts

• Develop “x-ray vision” for reading others’ fiction and revising your own

• Come away with a better sense of how character relates to conceit and plot in fiction

• Gain insight on your own structural challenges and tools to overcome them

• Learn directly from contemporary short story writers about their craft and micro-level decision-making 

• Leave with new material and/or revisions inspired by prompts and discussions

This is not a workshop course—there’s no peer feedback—but you’ll generate plenty of new material through customized prompts and weekly assignments.

About the Instructors

Details

This course will take place on Zoom. Participants will receive a Zoom link prior to the course as well as a recording of the course afterward.

After you take a course with Off Assignment, you’ll be invited into our private writing community for alumni on Slack. It includes channels for publication opportunities, reading recommendations, meet-ups, and more—not to mention literary companionship that outlasts the course itself.

There is a 10% cancellation fee if you cancel your enrollment more than 1 week before the start of the course. No refund will be given if cancelling within less than a week of the course start date (or after the course has begun).

Please email courses@offassignment.com with any questions.

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Financial Aid

The full price for this course is $420, with early bird pricing at $370 available until May 21. Payment plans are available at checkout via ShopPay.

A limited number of scholarships for this course are available. Please fill out this form by May 28, and we’ll get back to you within a week after the deadline. (Please hold off on registering until you have received a scholarship decision.)

Off Assignment’s Masters’ Series courses are unique four-session courses that delve deep into a specific writing topic by harnessing the expertise and craft tactics of a renowned writer in a particular niche, plus four celebrated authors. Participating writers gain a wealth of advanced techniques while benefiting from a cohesive community of disciplined writers.