Workshops 2026

Time: 2.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.

Price: € 25 per person

Venue: The Green, Edgeworthstown N39 VW40

What this workshop covers:  

The Art and Space of the Short Story

This short story workshop will offer ‘space’ to the participants – the task of starting with nothing and working your way through with words. Space on the page, the screen, space inside our heads, surrounding us – the space we cannot touch but can feel- how can we write that in our own words?
A writer and poet exist between emptying and being empty…what do we empty and when we are empty – how do we fill? What is negative space? How your writing benefits from ‘negative capability’ – refer to John Keats letter to his brother explaining that a great thinker is “capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” It is necessary work to make room for uncertainty. Do all the work you can in preparation then ponder the questions themselves.

Work from writers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Kevin Barry, Elaine Feeney, Mary Lavin, Anton Chekov, Toni Morrison, Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce, Maeve Brennan, Clarice Lispector, V.S. Pritchett, Gogol.

We will begin with space on the page.
What are the basic ingredients of a short story? Character, Voice, Setting, Conflict, Dialogue,
I will read a short story to illustrate the above. A short story is a snippet of a character’s life, an event that allows the reader to step into that character’s life then step out. It is succinct. You do not waste words. You need to be unafraid as the writer.

Refer also to writing quotes such as the one below.

Toni Morrison – “I do not teach passion and vision and all of those big, wonderful things which are absolutely necessary for extraordinary writing: I have to assume that my students have vision, passion, integrity, brilliant ideas. But many people possess those things, and the problem is moving from there to the writing, to getting a character off the boat and onto the shore.”

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. – E.L Doctorow.

How does one begin a short story? We will look at the opening lines of stories from the writers above and writers the participants suggest. What does the first line, the first paragraph promise the reader?

Creative writing tasks to illustrate the absolute importance of character in narrative, how to create character with use of The Marcel Proust Questionnaire, truth and imagination in fiction -two truths and a lie exercise.

The participants will use their 10-minute break, they will explore their surroundings, their coffee and cup, sounds, talk, footstep fall, the décor – whatever detail affects them, take note of the words that occur when they look at these details – on their return, they will explore description narrative, subtext, atmosphere/tone.

A writer uses his/her life and their imagination to create a short story.
Participants will draw on their own life experiences via ‘I remember when…’

Flash Fiction – short, short stories, beginning a story in media res, plot comes from character – what the character wants drives the narrative – flow and pace of sentences equals tone.

How do you ‘follow the line ‘ of a short story? How do you write the next paragraph? Do you outline?

Writers will be encouraged to use ‘sound’ , to think and feel their way into writing – aka John Donne ‘my naked thinking heart’, to be present on the writing page.

By the end of the workshop, each person will have begun their own short story after being introduced to various short story writers, encouraged to use the ‘emotion’ of their main character to drive the narrative, to learn and adapt short story writing techniques, and to keep reading and writing short stories.