Visual Storytelling: Cinematic Techniques for Flash Fiction
A flash fiction workshop with Amanda Saint
This workshop is included with our membership. If you’re not a member yet, sign up here to watch this session and over 50 other video workshops in our archive, all focused on writing great fiction.
What if you could make your flash fiction leap off the page like scenes from a film? In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore how the visual language of cinema can transform your short pieces into vivid, unforgettable experiences.
You’ll discover how to “storyboard” your flash pieces, learning to see your stories as visual moments that build towards revelation. We’ll practice using close-ups to reveal character truths, perspective shifts that create tension, and precise visual details that carry emotional weight.
Through practical exercises and analysis of masterful flash pieces, you’ll develop a new toolkit for crafting stories that feel both intimate and expansive. Whether you’re new to flash fiction or looking to deepen your practice, this workshop will help you create pieces that resonate long after the final line.
Perfect for writers who want to harness the power of visual storytelling to create flash fiction that feels as immersive and compelling as your favourite films.
Workshop Host: Amanda Saint is the author of two novels, As If I Were A River (2016) and Remember Tomorrow (2019) and a novella-in-flash, Pressure Drop (2024). Her short stories, flash and micro fictions have been widely published in journals and anthologies, and placed and listed in many international prizes, including the Mslexia Flash Fiction Prize and the Fish Flash Fiction Prize, nominated for Best Small Fictions 2023, and selected for Top in Fiction four times in 2024. Amanda founded Retreat West, providing an online writing community, competitions and courses in 2012. From 2018-2023 Retreat West published 24 books and was named Most Innovative Publisher at the 2020 Saboteur Awards (shortlisted 2019). In 2022, she launched the WestWord literary magazine and merged Retreat West into it in 2025. She also writes The Mindful Writer on Substack and launched a new creative venture inspired by it. Find out more about that here.
Watch the replay below and access the workshop handout that includes info on what we covered in the live session and has 5 great additional prompts to try!