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Hone your craft with guidance from published authors. Join an online creative writing workshop with the Gilliam Writers Group.

 

If you’re craving accountability or seeking specific tools for your writing practice, consider signing up for one of our creative writing classes online. Designed and led by published authors with substantial teaching experience, these courses will challenge you to learn new skills while refining the ones you’ve already developed. 

 
Short Story Mechanics
with Richard Thomas
a 2-week intensive fiction writing workshop
 
 
  • Monday, May 5 — Monday, May 19, 2025
  • 4 Assignments per Week with Lectures through Google Classroom
  • $405 total per person
In two weeks, Richard Thomas will help you nail the mechanics of the short story. This asynchronous, online fiction writing course is great for beginners, but anyone who wants to do some serious, fast-and-furious writing is welcome.

read more +

Do you struggle with the basic elements of the short story? Are you ready to write...a lot?
Welcome to Short Story Mechanics with Richard Thomas. Here's how this class will work:
On the first day you'll get a lecture and an assignment. Then two days later, you'll get another lecture, and another assignment, building off the first. This will happen every other day for two weeks. You'll cover the most basic tenets of building a successful short story: From looking at the big picture, to building tension, to finding your setting.
And you'll create a piece of writing that you'll hammer and refine at the end of each day.
The ultimate goal is to produce a flash fiction piece—no more than 4,000 words—by the end of the class. On the final day you'll turn your story in to Richard, and he'll get a critique back to you within a week... along with some suggestions on markets where you could send it.
This is a fast and furious breakdown of short story structure, aimed at getting you working, getting you writing, and pushing you toward the goal of publication. You're going to work hard—but in the end, it's going to be worth it. These tools will last you the lifetime of your writing career.
This class is perfect if you're a beginner, but anyone who wants to do some serious writing is welcome to join.
Goals of this Class:
  • Master the mechanics of the short story
  • Learn how to internalize and utilize those skills in the future
  • Produce a short story, no more than 4,000 words
  • Get solid suggestions on where to send it

Richard's bio +

Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of nine books: four novels—Incarnate (Podium), Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), and Transubstantiate (Otherworld Publications); four short story collections—Spontaneous Human Combustion (Turner Publishing—Bram Stoker finalist), Tribulations (Cemetery Dance), Staring Into the Abyss (Kraken Press), and Herniated Roots (Snubnose Press); as well as one novella of The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books).
His over 175 stories in print include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker Award winner), The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors (Shirley Jackson Award winner), Lightspeed, PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous (#1&2), Chiral Mad (#2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon,and Shivers VI. He has won contests at ChiZine and One Buck Horror, has received five Pushcart Prize nominations, and has been long-listed for Best Horror of the Year seven times.
Richard was also the editor of five anthologies: The Best of Gamut (House of Gamut), The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk and Dennis Widmyer.
He has been a finalist for the Bram Stoker (twice), Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Gamut magazine and previously held the same title at Dark House Press. His agent is Paula Munier at Talcott Notch.
Richard received his MFA in 2012 from Murray State University, and has taught at the University of Iowa, Story Studio Chicago, LitReactor.com, and Writer’s Digest University, as well as his own classes at StoryvilleOnline.com (including such offerings as Short Story Mechanics, Contemporary Dark Fiction, an Advanced Creative Writing Workshop, and Novel in a Year.) While he primarily writes speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction and horror) he also writes, edits, teaches, and publishes other genres and sub-genres, such as neo-noir, thrillers, new-weird, Southern gothic, magical realism, and literary fiction.
He lives and works in Chicago.

client testimonials +

“Want to be a better writer? Want someone to provide shock absorbers to help you glide smoothly over the bumps in the road? Want to have your work read by someone with a discerning eye? Then take one of Richard Thomas’s fiction classes. He is capable, caring, inspiring, and he provides compassionate, in-depth critiques of your work. He can give you the ammunition you need to get to the head of the class."
- Denise C.
“Richard Thomas is an excellent teacher and a talented writer. His workshops help fiction writers to polish their craft and explore writing in new genres. Highly recommended.”
- Alicia H.
“A great mini-MFA class to refresh your writing and help you work on aspects of your craft with other well seasoned writers.”
- Dan M.
“This class really helped me push my limits and learn new ways of writing and approaching different areas of my craft, while helping me to define my focus. The columns inspired me to write better. The content of his courses is fabulous and I always learn a lot.”
- Erin C.

Browse Past Workshops

 Write better, together.

 Our online writing workshops challenge groups of various levels and backgrounds—professionals, students, hobbyists, and more—to hone their craft together, trusting in and beyond the guidance of their instructors.

Each Gilliam Writers Group workshop is facilitated by an accomplished author who loves to teach. We can also design custom creative or professional writing courses that incorporate special guests with expertise in relevant fields.

All workshop instructors partner with our firm’s administrators throughout the curriculum design process, ensuring that every aspect of your learning experience has been vetted and critiqued by multiple writers beforehand.

(In-person writing classes available in select locations.)