52 weeks, 250 words per week
Start small | think big.
With weekly assignments, editing feedback, self-editing assessments, online sharing sessions, special guests, recommended reading and more. Sign up quarterly or for the whole year.
This programme of writing evolves from the original 52|250 A Year of Flash that Michelle Elvy founded with John Wentworth Chapin in 2010.
Introduction to writing small: A course for all levels, with material developed for adults and students. In this class, you will learn to take a chance with your writing and pay attention to the details and the smallest of moments. You will engage with external prompts and lively discussions. You will start small and practice the fine art of brevity – which can be applied to all forms of communication. Whether you are a writer trying to hone your short stories or poetry, or a curious individual new to writing and looking for the beginning point, or youth or student writers wanting to develop your skills, 52|250 will challenge you to explore new directions. From the nuts and bolts of structure to more complex ideas around suspense, movement and voice, the weekly lessons will help you find new means of expression in your writing. The new quarter begins Monday, 03 February 2025.
Why weekly?
Because the path to better writing is regular practice.
-John Wentworth Chapin
The 52|250 challenge is in the commitment to writing every week – 250 words every week. It’s a slow build. Like any skill, writing can be nurtured and developed with intense focus over time. This course will help demystify and encourage the act of writing, with any form you decide to take on.
Poets who want to explore narrative storytelling; storytellers who aim to adopt more poetic language; writers who seek a path through blocked creativity – all are welcome!
With tools and skills from the original 52|250 year of writing this programme is offered as a year-long course, made up of weekly lessons with flexibility built in to cater to individual needs and goals. The central philosophy is start small | think big – building your writing each week, whether in distinct small stories and poems, or scenes that work together towards a greater whole.
Each week, students will write 250 words based on a new assignment or hone and edit previous work. Each week, the focus will be around coaxing the very best out of your 250 words.
Why 250?
250 words: enough to get your creativity flowing, but not overwhelming.
250 words: makes you pay attention to language, structure and story, blending poetry and prose – expressive, experimental and elegant.
250 words: a small moment, or a whole world.
Other online courses
- Short Courses (8 weeks) in Memoir, Humour, Historical Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Storytelling from Hybrid to Novella-in-flash
- Manuscript classes
Short courses: These classes are designed to encourage exploration and discussion, while advancing your own writing. Sessions are dynamic, with newcomers and experienced writers sharing a common, congenial space. We meet in Zoom; 2 hours each week for 8 weeks. Every week begins with a new topic, with recommended reading and new materials that present a variety of writing in the specific genre. This will give further context and help lay the groundwork for your writing. Each week includes an assignment, and we’ll share and talk about what you have written. Students may also submit work for specific feedback and suggestions for further thinking, in dialogue with the individual writer. The group dynamic, combined with individual editing and revision work, creates an intense and focused reading and writing experience. These classes are in Memoir, Humour, Historical Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Storytelling from Hybrid to Novella-in-flash and the new series begins in March 2025.
Manuscript groups: For individuals working specifically towards publication, whether writing essays or poetry, short fiction or longer-form novels. These are set up as fortnightly gatherings, with specific focus on a small set of pages each time, usually from 2 writers in each session. In this way, you will learn more about critical and creative critiquing of each other’s work, and this focus can be applied to your own. Students enter a colleagueship with others, and also gain individual feedback from the tutor with each new set of pages. New sessions begin in February 2025.
Please get in touch if you are interested in joining a short course or a manuscript class!
52|250 A Year of Writing 