Matt Kendrick
Writer | Editor | Teacher
Write Beyond the Lightbulb - Lyrical Writing
How do we craft writing so infused with musicality that it deserves to be read out loud? How do we get a reader to speed up or slow down? How do we sustain rhythm and flow from one sentence to the next? This flash fiction course explores various tricks and techniques which can be used to lend a lyrical quality to our prose.
Upcoming Course Dates
3rd - 16th June 2024 (SOLD OUT)
4th - 17th November 2024 (BOOKING WILL OPEN IN AUGUST 2024)
To be added to my priority list for future courses, please send me an email at matt@mattkendrick.co.uk
Previous Course Dates
11th - 24th January 2021 (SOLD OUT); 8th - 21st February 2021 (SOLD OUT); 12th - 25th April 2021 (SOLD OUT); 17th - 30th May 2021 (SOLD OUT); 9th - 22nd August 2021 (SOLD OUT); 11th - 24th October 2021 (SOLD OUT); 10th - 23rd January 2022 (SOLD OUT); 28th March - 10th April 2022 (SOLD OUT); 6th - 19th June 2022 (SOLD OUT); 12th - 25th September 2022 (SOLD OUT); 17th - 30th April 2023 (SOLD OUT)
Price
This is a pay-what-you-can workshop. The recommended price is £95*. Where this is prohibitive, please pay what you feel you can afford**. As a workshop facilitator, I am committed to opening up writing opportunities to people from all backgrounds based on ability to write rather than ability to pay.
*For the sake of transparency, this recommended price is calculated to cover (a) 3.5 hours of course tutor input (per participant) in terms of feedback, discussion and admin; (b) the research / writing time of the course tutor in putting together the course notes (approximately 15,000 words, available to download following the course); and (c) miscellaneous fees (transaction charges, website charges etc.)
**Available price options: (A) £95, (B) £85, (C) £75, (D) £60, (E) £50. If you are a low-income writer and would be interested in hearing about free places, please enter your details here.
Testimonials
"Matt's wealth of knowledge about music combined with his keen analysis of text and always-encouraging approach to teaching make his lyrical writing workshop very special - your head will be singing!"
Cath Barton, Author of "In the Sweep of the Bay"
"Matt takes writing down to the syllable level, the lyrical place where music meets words in a magical way. This stellar course and feedback made me rethink how I write, how my writing sounds, how each word is part of a symphony. I knew Matt was a great editor; he's also an awesome teacher! The workshop was generative, but also shared new self-editing techniques that go beyond the lightbulb."
Amy Barnes, Author of "Mother Figures"
"The course really got me thinking about how much further I could take my writing at a sentence level. It was very inspiring. The feedback and guidance from the tutor was very thorough and I know I'll be returning to the course materials again and again."
Alexis Wolfe
Topics
1: Tempo (sentence length and punctuation)
2: Rhythm (word stress and parallelism)
3: Sound (alliteration, consonance and onomatopoeia)
4: Motifs (repetition and echoes)
The course is presented through a mixture of reading and video material with preparatory exercises leading towards a final flash fiction challenge for each topic. As well as exploring fantastic examples of lyrical writing, we'll take short detours away from the literary world to see what we can learn from music, poetry and the mechanics of speech sound.
The reading list for this course includes pieces by Sharon Telfer, Helen Rye, Shome Dasgupta, Ben Slotky, Christopher M Drew, Nick Black, Kathy Fish and Rebecca Swanberg.
Each topic is designed to be worked through in roughly three hours. The course is fully asynchronous (work-at-your-own-pace) and fully online to allow course participants to fit it in around their other commitments.
Course Structure
In the first week, the focus is fully on reading, writing and learning.
In the second week, you'll have access to a workshop space to share your final challenge pieces and feedback on those created by other course participants.
To allow writers of all speeds to gain the most out of the course materials, participants can opt to get access to the course website one week before the course start date and will be sent full course notes following the end of the course.
Forum
During the course, you'll have access to a forum where you can connect with other participants, discuss readings and share the micros you'll be creating in each topics' preparatory exercises.
Workshop
In the second week, course participants will be invited to take part in a workshop where you can upload between one and four flash fiction pieces created as part of the course. This is an opportunity to give and receive feedback from other course participants in a low-pressure, friendly environment.
Feedback
Micros shared on the course forum will get brief feedbcak from the course tutor. You'll also get detailed feedback (a 300-400 word structural summary plus in-line comments) on one piece of flash fiction created from the final challenge prompts.
Course Tutor
Matt Kendrick is a writer, editor and teacher based in the East Midlands, UK. His short fiction has appeared in Bending Genres, Cheap Pop, Craft Literary, FlashBack Fiction, Fictive Dream, Lunate, New Flash Fiction Review, Spelk, Splonk, and elsewhere. He has been placed or listed in various writing competitions including Bath, Flash 500, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, Reflex and Leicester Writes. His work has been included on the Biffy 50 list for 2019-20, in Best Microfiction 2021, Best Small Fictions 2022 and the Wigleaf Top 50 list for 2022.
He works as a freelance editor and creative writing tutor, drawing on his knowledge of languages and other art forms to inform his workshops on lyrical writing, glorious words, colourful characters and writing flow.
Other Information
The course is designed for writers of all levels but, to get the most out of the materials, it is suggested that you should have some prior familiarity with reading and writing flash fiction. While the course is geared towards the study and generation of flash, the techniques and skills acquired should also be useful for writing longer form and non-fiction pieces.
The course is hosted on a Google website using Google Classroom and Google drive to enable the forum and workshop elements. To access materials, participants will need to have a Google account. If you don't already have one, you will be sent information on how you can set one up following sign up for the course.
The terms and conditions for the course can be found here.
Stories written on the Write Beyond The Lightbulb courses
The prompts on the Write Beyond the Lightbulb courses aim to get participants practising technique and experimenting with new ideas rather than writing perfect stories, but even so many wonderful pieces have been crafted by course participants and subsequently made their way out into the world.
The stories have been placed in major writing competitions including Reflex Fiction and Bath Flash Fiction, and have also been published in a wide variety of literary journals. A selection of these stories can be read at the link below: