The Writers' HQ Write A Short Story Festival

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Throughout March
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Let's all write a short story

Join Sarah, Team WHQ and a specially curated gang of super awesome, award-winning short story writers for a month of short story workshops, masterclasses and write-a-longs designed to get you writing or to elevate your craft from good to great.

Throughout March, the Writers’ HQ Write A Short Story Festival will give you the opportunity to explore everything you need to know about the short form, from starting, middling and ending. We’ll go deep into the craft of short story writing and finish the month by finding out how to submit your work to lit mags and publishers.

You can start at the beginning and write a story alongside other festival writers, or you can drop in and out depending on where you are with your writing.

Plus, through regular write-a-longs we’ll help you stay on track and build a writing practice that fits into your life and goals.

Also! The best writing community this side of the internet. Aww yeah! It’s gonna be a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Catch the festival on replay right here

All the tools you need to curate your own short story collection – from concept to completion.
What happens to our writing when we slow down our reading and think critically about the stories in front of us?
Exploring dialogue - how to make it fit the story, advance the plot and reveal character, and when to keep our character’s mouths shut!
A wild ride of a workshop helping you to create ideas you otherwise wouldn't have dreamt of putting on the page.
An interactive workshop exploring ways of making your story more beautiful, more connected, and more human.
During the Write A Short Story Festival 2025, we're challenging you to write a brand new piece of fiction. So let's begin... 

Plus! Also! Too! As well!

These awesome bonus things...

When you get on board for the Write A Short Story Festival, you will also have access to:

Every event from last year's festival!

Including

  • The Telescopic Lens: A big-picture to small-detail approach for editing your stories with Matt Kendric
  • The Craft of Short Story Writing with Kathy Hoyle
  • Dust off Your Drafts with Anika Carpenter
  • Nail Your End: Finishing the Short Story with Emily Devane

Writing Short Fiction

Our mammoth short fiction course!

Full of practical techniques for developing your writing skills and producing stellar short stories

Three Other Awesome Short Story Courses

  • Create A Short Story Collection
    Learn how to turn your short stories into a collection!

  • Short Fiction Mini Masterclass
    A quick intro to big little stories

  • The Writers' HQ Guide to Flash Fiction
    Conjure teeny flashy stories out of thin air

The Amazing Writers' HQ Community

Writing is a team sport and there’s no better place to find your writing team than Writers’ HQ. Many of our students have gone on to form close friendships and trusted critiquing partnerships. Introverted? Don’t worry! We’re all awkward writer-types here

Who’s awesome? We’re awesome!

Well. You’re awesome, actually. You do the hard work, we just provide the warm embrace of swearing and tea and pep.

You ready? Let’s gooooooo!

The Write A Short Story Festival 2026 is available exclusively for Writers’ HQ Gold Star Members. Click the buttons and secure your spot.

(If you’re already a member, just go to each event you want to attend and click ‘book now’.)

Freebies

Glorious Writing Beasts

Read this before going to the forum!

The widget that lets you sign into the forum with your WHQ login has given up. 

We are trying to coax it back into existence. So far neither bribery, begging or crying has worked. We are currently trying shaking our fists at the sky and going ‘grrrr’.

You can still get to the forum though! Do this:

  1. Click the button below
  2. On the forum login page, click reset password USING THE SAME EMAIL YOU USE FOR WHQ
  3. Click the link in the email and reset your password

IMPORTANT: This means you will have TWO (2) passwords/logins. One for the WHQ main site and one for the forum. It’s a pain in the arse. We’re sorry. It is temporary, but at least you can dick about on the forum again. OKAY BYE. 

Once you hit the button, you’ll get a confirmation email, and we’ll send you the Zoom link an hour before the event. 

We’ve sent the Zoom link to your inbox and we’ll send it again one hour before the event. 

If you don’t get an email, check your spam fist and then wang us a line on help@writershq.co.uk and we’ll leap into action with keenness and speed. 

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