Matt Kendrick
Writer | Editor | Teacher
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.
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Upcoming Course Dates
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9th - 22nd June 2025 (**SOLD OUT**)
10th - 23rd November 2025 (Booking open in August)
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To be added to my priority list for future courses, please send me an email to matt@mattkendrick.co.uk
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Previous Course Dates
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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); 3rd - 16th June 2024 (SOLD OUT); 4th - 17th November 2024
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Price
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This is a pay-what-you-can workshop. The recommended price is £105*. 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.
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*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.)
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**Available price options: (A) £105, (B) £95, (C) £85, (D) £70, (E) £60. If you are a low-income writer and would like to sign up to my lottery for 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!"​
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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."​
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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."​
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Alexis Wolfe
Topics
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1: Tempo (sentence length and punctuation)
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Using sentence length to make a reader slow down or speed up.
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Bell-curve paragraphs.
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Creating pause with punctuation.
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Introductory phrases, interrupting phrases and tree-branch asides.
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2: Rhythm (word stress and parallelism)
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Word stress and rhythmic patterns.
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Rhythmic mirroring.
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Using lists and repetition to build intensity.
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Parallelism: call and response phrases.
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3: Sound (alliteration, consonance and onomatopoeia)
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The mechanics of speech sound.
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Sound palettes and dissonance.
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Alliteration, consonance and sibilance.
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Onomatopoeia.
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4: Motifs (repetition and echoes)
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Anaphora, epistrophe and parallelism.
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Echo words and other techniques that make use of repetition.
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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.
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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.
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Each topic is designed to be worked through in roughly four or five 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.
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Course Structure
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Week 0
Participants are given access to the course website seven days prior to the start date. This is to allow writers to make a headstart on reading and preparative exercises. If you would like access to the materials further in advance, this can normally be accommodated.
Week 1
Participants are encouraged to work through the reading materials and preparative exercises. The course forum is open for discussion of stories and craft techniques as well as for sharing micros created from the preparative exercises.
Week 2
Participants can continue working through the course materials at their own pace. The main workshop is open for sharing final challenge pieces and providing feedback on those created by other course participants.
After the course
Participants are sent full course notes in PDF format.
Learning Mode
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Online (website and Google Classroom).
Asynchronous (work at your own pace / no set times / no Zoom elements).
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Forum (opportunitiy to interact with course tutor and other course participants).
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Workshop (opportunity to share work and swap feedback with other course participants).
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Feedback from course tutor on four prepartory micros and detailed feedback (300-400 word structural summary plus in-line comments) on one "final challenge" piece.
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Course Tutor
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Matt Kendrick is a writer, editor and teacher based in the East Midlands, UK. His short fiction has appeared in various journals, and has been included on the Biffy 50 list for 2019-20, in Best Microfiction 2021, Best Small Fictions 2022 and the Wigleaf Top 50 2022.
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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 / Sign Up
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.
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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.
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The terms and conditions for the course can be found here.
Stories written on the Write Beyond The Lightbulb courses
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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.
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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: