WRITING EXERCISE: ‘On a fundamental level, the plot of any story can be reduced to: a character who wants something they can’t have. Where it gets really interesting is when that ‘something’ is totally out of bounds. Flirting with someone else’s lover. Saying ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre. Opening Pandora’s Box. Reading a banned book. Speaking Voldemort’s name. Riding your big sister’s bike…’ JO GATFORD, from Writers’ HQ, offers a creative exercise in the taboo…
In this special feature, short story author A. J. ASHWORTH takes us inside the pages of Red Room, and tells of editing these New Short Stories Inspired by the Brontës…
‘If you are anything like me, the act of writing a first draft includes periods when the work is “sticky” and there is a feeling that the words are having to be forced to come out, a feeling that I am controlling the action.’ VANESSA GEBBIE sets an exercise with hidden characters.
‘ Short-story writers see by the light of the flash…’ ~ Nadine Gordimer
‘To accept a short story commission, or not, that is the question.’ Writer VANESSA GEBBIE considers the pros and cons of short story commissions. Have you ever been commissioned to write a story? Leave a comment and tell us what do you think.
