Part of the Writers’ HQ membership
7 week course - or take as long as you need
Join our kickass community
Are you ready to create some teeny tiny stories full of impact and truth and humanity? YES YOU ARE! Come flash with us…
Our Beginner’s Guide to Flash Fiction course contains a holy hand grenade of tips, tricks and techniques on crafting your own glorious little story nuggets, breaking all the rules (jk there aren’t any), and even getting your work published.
Stuff like…
WEEK 1: WHERE THE HECK DO I START?
What is flash fiction? Yes, okay, but what IS flash fiction? THIS is flash fiction…
WEEK 2: BEGINNINGS
Snippets of inspiration, a gazillion story prompts, and how to develop an idea.
WEEK 3: MIDDLES
Building structure, developing character and finding your rhythm.
WEEK 4: ENDINGS
The plot twist, powerful endings, and finally, the title.
WEEK 5: EDITING
Death by a thousand cuts, difficult questions, and a final polish.
WEEK 6: GOING OFF PISTE
Break the rules, learn from all the best rulebreakers, and do some experimenting…
WEEK 7: WHAT’S NEXT?
Sending your work out into the world with our submissions checklist and guide to acceptance/rejection.
1. Enrol
Sign up for a fully-fledged WHQ membership and get access to this and ALL our online courses direct from your member dashboard. Super simple.
2. Read, watch, do
The lessons are a mix of text, images, videos and exercises. To get the most out of the course, try to give yourself at least an hour a day to read or watch the material and do the exercises. We’ve made them as bite-size as possible but also if you wanna do the thing you gotta do the work.
3. No rush
This course is written to be done over seven weeks but take as long as you like and don’t panic! Go at your own pace. We’ll be waiting for you in the community forums when you’re ready to catch up.
4. No money? No problem
If you’re unable to afford WHQ membership please get in touch via our our bursary scheme!
5. Milk no sugar
Drink plenty of tea and stock up on biscuits. Enjoy it. It’s supposed to be fun. Love you. Mwah.
A comprehensive guide to getting started with flash fiction, from generating ideas, developing structure, characterisation, pace, tone, editing, and getting published.
A whole boatload of inspiring examples, resources, techniques and advice to help you explore the world of flash fiction with confidence.
Inspiration, whip-cracking, writing exercises and challenges.
Access to our private forum full of super cool people for feedback and support.
An absolutely brilliant course that I will dip back into again and again. Truly inspiring. I’ve bought a new notebook on the strength of it!
A Five star course. (I know I only clicked four stars but my browser is behaving weirdly and it would let me click all five)
It’s my editing blueprint for good, for now, forever! I could write a song about this course .. but instead I’ll sing your praises and say how you’ve taken the huge job of drafting a novel and made it simple .. well, simpler, because you have the knack of getting right to the heart of what a novel is, what it’s for, how it works as an entity, who inhabits it. About midway through the course I had a personal business crash that required my total attention to fix, and it’s a shame because I was enjoying the forum and taking part in it. BUT I was safe in the knowledge that if I could get back to reality and my life quick enough, I could continue and I have – and completed! I have a deadline to fulfil with my writing group and if I can manage it, I will return to the Forum too before the course ends in a few days. I will undoubtedly be returning for the course on Submission to an Agent but I’m nowhere near ready. Can I just say how helpful it was knowing the course materials would continue to be up on the site as I’ve desperately needed this time.
My only crit would be, and I mean it in a positive way, is that I felt the whole course could have been double the length anyway – as in 3 months, and then another 6 weeks for the materials to be up on the site. Many exercises of ’60 mins’ or ’45 mins’ took days or a whole week! By the way, more expensive courses I’ve taken (e.g. for thousands!) were NOTHING compared to this!! Bless you, and though I wish you EVERY SUCCESS with your own writing, I hope you DON’T STOP DOING THIS!!! A THOUSAND THANKS.
Now I love writing flash pieces.
Kathy’s course and her, and other’s, feedback have given me that ‘freshen up’ from the novel editing process.
The course has sharpened up my writing, making me a more concise and considered (less overly verbose) writer, which is a useful transferable skill to writing the novel and well as getting better at Flash.
I have just entered a piece into a competition and plan to do more – so now there is the fun of seeing what happened to those efforts.
Take the course and see your writing flourish in unexpected ways.
It’s my editing blueprint for good, for now, forever! I could write a song about this course .. but instead I’ll sing your praises and say how you’ve taken the huge job of drafting a novel and made it simple .. well, simpler, because you have the knack of getting right to the heart of what a novel is, what it’s for, how it works as an entity, who inhabits it. About midway through the course I had a personal business crash that required my total attention to fix, and it’s a shame because I was enjoying the forum and taking part in it. BUT I was safe in the knowledge that if I could get back to reality and my life quick enough, I could continue and I have – and completed! I have a deadline to fulfil with my writing group and if I can manage it, I will return to the Forum too before the course ends in a few days. I will undoubtedly be returning for the course on Submission to an Agent but I’m nowhere near ready. Can I just say how helpful it was knowing the course materials would continue to be up on the site as I’ve desperately needed this time.
My only crit would be, and I mean it in a positive way, is that I felt the whole course could have been double the length anyway – as in 3 months, and then another 6 weeks for the materials to be up on the site. Many exercises of ’60 mins’ or ’45 mins’ took days or a whole week! By the way, more expensive courses I’ve taken (e.g. for thousands!) were NOTHING compared to this!! Bless you, and though I wish you EVERY SUCCESS with your own writing, I hope you DON’T STOP DOING THIS!!! A THOUSAND THANKS.
I certainly had my eyes opened in this course. One or I had made an of attempts at sending a couple of pieces out a couple of years ago. Now I know exactly where I went wrong. They might still get rejected, but at least I feel that I have learned to craft the stories rather than simply telling them. I might stand a better chance. No, I shall rephrase that, I will stand a better chance after doing this course!
Thank you so much Writers HQ and Flashy Kathy
It’s my editing blueprint for good, for now, forever! I could write a song about this course .. but instead I’ll sing your praises and say how you’ve taken the huge job of drafting a novel and made it simple .. well, simpler, because you have the knack of getting right to the heart of what a novel is, what it’s for, how it works as an entity, who inhabits it. About midway through the course I had a personal business crash that required my total attention to fix, and it’s a shame because I was enjoying the forum and taking part in it. BUT I was safe in the knowledge that if I could get back to reality and my life quick enough, I could continue and I have – and completed! I have a deadline to fulfil with my writing group and if I can manage it, I will return to the Forum too before the course ends in a few days. I will undoubtedly be returning for the course on Submission to an Agent but I’m nowhere near ready. Can I just say how helpful it was knowing the course materials would continue to be up on the site as I’ve desperately needed this time.
My only crit would be, and I mean it in a positive way, is that I felt the whole course could have been double the length anyway – as in 3 months, and then another 6 weeks for the materials to be up on the site. Many exercises of ’60 mins’ or ’45 mins’ took days or a whole week! By the way, more expensive courses I’ve taken (e.g. for thousands!) were NOTHING compared to this!! Bless you, and though I wish you EVERY SUCCESS with your own writing, I hope you DON’T STOP DOING THIS!!! A THOUSAND THANKS.
(AKA ‘Flashy Kathy’)
Coventry retreat rep, Flash Face Off queen, and all round lush chick
Half of Writers’ HQ
Procrastinator Level: Set up WHQ and did an MA to avoid writing her novel
Free courses! Free retreats! Pep, vim, gifs, bad literary jokes, and general super cool writerly stuffs.
