Revised Second Edition 2025

Tips, techniques and encouragement for the short story writer.

I can't teach you how to write, I can't give you that particular talent, but what I can offer is to guide you through the short story writing process, to show you how to avoid the pitfalls, and to encourage you to work on your short story, to polish it to perfection, and then to decide where to take it next – to enter competitions, offer it to magazines and radio, or publish a collection.

I've taught creative writing for almost thirty years and this book contains some of the methods I've used with my students.

Carolyn Lewis BA (Hons), MPhil in Writing, PhD

Carolyn Lewis was born in Cardiff and currently lives near Chepstow. Carolyn has been writing since she was eight years old, when she won her first short story competition. After leaving school, she trained as a journalist for the South Wales Echo and Western Mail, leaving to have her children.

Returning to work, she became a press officer for a number of organisations, including Mencap. During this time, she began writing short stories, winning a number of prizes and awards. She co-founded a women-only writing group, which ran successfully for five years.

In 1993 Carolyn embarked on a part-time English degree course at the University of the West of England, attaining a 2:1. In 1999, immediately following graduation, she applied for and was accepted on an MPhil in Writing at the University of Glamorgan. Following her MPhil, Carolyn has taken creative writing workshops into local schools, adult education centres, colleges and universities and has also worked for a drug rehabilitation project in Bath. Her novel Missing Nancy was written as part of the MPhil, and was published in 2008 by Accent Press. Following her MPhil, she has completed a PhD in Creative Writing at Swansea University. She is the author of The Novel: A Perfect Recipe (a guide to writing your first novel) and Some Sort of Twilight, a collection of her prize-winning and published short stories. Her latest book, Time, Again, was published in 2025. For many years, Carolyn wrote stories for Woman’s Weekly and Take a Break.