YOUR WONDERFUL NOVELLA JOURNEY: FICTION AND CREATIVE NON-FICTION

The novella is one of the most beautiful forms of creative work – longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, it can capture great meaning and explore great depths. On this course, we will discuss wonderful novellas – why they work, how they work, and we will start to write our own novellas. We will explore the elements of writing good fiction – character, pace, setting and story – and each workshop will consist of presentations, group discussions and writing and sharing work.

After the course writers will have the opportunity to publish the first 1 000 words of their novella on the UCT Summer School Writers' Forum website.
Anyone interested in exploring novella, creativity and writing are welcome to join. The aim is to come together as a creative community, have fun and write a lot!

Week 1 Beautiful novellas and why we love them
Week 2 Finding a meaningful theme for your novella
Week 3 How to create incredible characters and settings that matter
Week 4 The importance of structure and some notes on editing your own work
Week 5 'The novella slam' – an opportunity to read your work out loud

Sally Cranswick is a writer, story coach and workshop facilitator with a special interest in memoir and life writing. She encourages writers to incorporate a daily habit of writing and to have fun with their creativity. Her collection of short stories, Women out of Water (Modjaji Books), was shortlisted for the SALA Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award in 2022.

Her novel will be published next year. She has written many short stories, features and columns for various magazines and newspapers – most recently the Sunday Times – and has an MA cum laude in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town and a BA with honours in Creative & Media Writing from Middlesex University, London. Before settling in Cape Town, Sally was a singer and lived in many countries around the world.