How to Write an Award-Winning SF short story

Strategy and technique for writing the right story, entering and winning the award.

Created byHarry Dewulf

Last updated 1/2019

English

What you'll learn

Strategy and technique for short story writing
Strategy and technique for conceiving science fiction stories
Strategy and technique for entering and winning short story writing competitions and awards

Course content

1 section • 8 lectures • 51m total length

Introduction2:29
How to conceive your story6:27
Before you can develop a story, you need some ideas. Two, to be exact.
Your Main Ideas!
The Story Framework7:48
Building a Framework
The Qualities of an Award-Winning Short Story7:03
Some essential characteristics of a great short story; tools and techniques for infusing your story with them.
The Writing Process9:05
A practical approach to writing and completing your SF short story.
Collaboration is valuable in developing your ideas and writing your story. I've added a link to a page on story development consultations that I provide - but sign up to my mailing list and email me if you just want to talk through a short story idea.
How to Win an Award5:50
Let's Rehearse the Whole Process for Learning What you have to Learn
Types of Science Fiction9:59
Conclusion and Further Information3:01
... and a pep-talk, and since "pep" isn't really my thing, probably worth watching just for that.
Not kidding though. Winning awards requires a lot of hard work. So you might need some pep.

Requirements

You need to know the basics of writing fiction.

Description

There are two big take-aways in this course:

The strategy for entering and winning writing competitions and awards in general
A technique for conception and development of a powerful Science Fiction story

By combining the two, you have can learn a complete process to win an award for an SF short story, but...

Ha! When isn't there a 'but' ?

Look - my main aim as a writing coach is never to try to tell you some quick route to success. My main aim is always to teach you how to become a better writer; to guide you towards mastering your art. If you've done any of my other courses, you'll know that there's going to be some difficult concepts and some hard work for you to do.

And - of course, no one can promise you success in an award or a competition, any more than anyone can promise you success in writing. But there's a lot you can do to greatly improve your chances.

And most of all, if you write the kind of short stories that I'm teaching you to write, you can use them to get attention - from new readers, from agents, from commissioning editors, from periodicals. Great short stories are both an education in themselves, and a powerful marketing tool.

So I hope you'll put in the hard work, and I hope you'll let me know how you get on.

Who this course is for:

Ambitious authors, who want to be recognized for their talents - or develop talents worthy of recognition