The Comedy Short Story Course with Jo Middleton

Comedy is often treated as a personality trait. You are either funny or you are not. On the page, though, comedy is a craft. It is timing, rhythm, point of view, surprise and what a sentence chooses to reveal or hide. In this course we will look at how writers use humour to tell sharp, emotionally intelligent stories about ordinary life. From the dark absurdity of George Saunders and Roald Dahl to the dry, humane wit of Lorrie Moore and Grace Paley, we will explore how comic writing works not by telling jokes, but by shaping how a story moves, where it turns and how it lands.

Across eight weeks, you will read and write short stories that use comedy to explore everything from family and work to love, class, failure and awkwardness. Through weekly prompts and exercises you will experiment with voice, understatement, exaggeration and comic timing, building a toolkit you can use in any kind of writing.

The course will include two workshopping sessions where you’ll be given feedback from Jo Middleton and the rest of the attendees, and you will also give feedback on their short stories. Guidance and support will be given on how to do this.

You’ll be expected to do a lot of reading and writing in between sessions, and a full course outline and reading list will be sent once you’ve signed up. Places are limited to eight so everyone (and their stories) are given a lot of attention.

Whether your instinct is deadpan, silly, surreal or quietly observant, this course will show you that humour on the page is not about being ‘a funny person’. It is something you can learn

Free entry into the Raw Writing Short Story competition (worth £25) when you sign up for this course! The deadline for the Raw Writing Short Story competition is 17th June 2026, the word count is 2000 maximum, and the prize will be a mentoring package (six sessions) with a published writer, a place on a six-month Raw Writing course, and publication in the Raw Writing Anthology.

Mondays  19.00-20.30

9th, 16th, 23^rd  March (no sessions 30^th  March and 6^th April)

13th, 20^th  27^th April,  4^th and 11^th May