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Fiction Intensive: The Short Story (virtual) with Sharon English

Intensive workshops combine elements of WFNS’s traditional creative writing and professional development workshops with peer-to-peer feedback (facilitated by the instructor) to guide writers through the critique, revision, and submission processes that form the path from completed draft to submitted manuscript.

Participants should have a completed or partially completed draft before the workshop begins.

You’ve written a story, yet you’re unsure whether it’s ready to meet the world. Or you’ve sent out several stories, yet publication has been elusive or rare. Both situations are common for writers, no matter how experienced, because as Francine Prose reminds us, “a story creates its own world.” A story drawing too much on familiar tropes feels predictable, cliché, yet an inventive story needs enough coherence and polish to make it sing.

In this workshop you’ll learn strategies for balancing familiarity and novelty by developing your work through revision, which focuses on larger narrative issues, and through editing at the sentence level. By exchanging your stories with other participants, you’ll learn to hone your self-editing skills, to work with feedback from readers, and to offer—and receive—supportive, practical responses to works-in-progress. Writing communities and groups are essential for these reasons and more. We’ll also spend time discussing paths to publication, including where and how to submit your fiction.

Three of the five sessions will involve workshopping participants’ completed short stories drafts, as well as instruction. All genres of fiction are welcome and will enrich our discussions.

About the instructor: Sharon English is the author of the novel Night in the World and the story collections Uncomfortably Numb and Zero Gravity. A long-time writing teacher, mentor, and editor, Sharon has taught writers both new and experienced across writing genres. She teaches courses on fiction and creative nonfiction at the University of Toronto, where she is Assistant Professor, Writing and Rhetoric program, and at other institutions. Originally from London, Ontario, Sharon now resides most of the year in East Hants county, Nova Scotia.

Recommended experience level: New and emerging fiction writers, including those more experienced in other forms (About recommended experience levels)

Participant cap: 6

Location: Zoom

Dates of 5-week workshop: Tuesdays, Apr 21 + Apr 28 + May 5 + May 12 + May 19, 2026 (7:00pm to 9:00pm Atlantic)

Registration for 2026 General Members: $259

Registration for non-members: $324 (includes 2026 General Membership in WFNS)

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Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for children, writing for young adults, and others) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

Occasionally, WFNS uses the phrase “emerging and established writers/authors” to mean ‘writers and authors of all experience levels.’

The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the above definitions. A workshop’s participants should usually have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with info, strategies, and skills that suit their experience. 

For “intensive” and “masterclass” workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If uncertain about your experience level with respect to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca