Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing I is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Science Fiction and Fantasy may transport readers to a planet light-years away or deep inside the caves of a far-distant past. Whether extrapolating science into futuristic technology or conjuring new forms of magic, these genres imagine what might have been or what might be, opening the door to any possibility.
To write great science fiction or fantasy, you must splice together the skills of a fiction writer with the ability to make the imaginary seem true. Here you will learn the special requirements of these genres, as well as fiction craft and how to market your work.
Whether you seek to write short stories or novels, cyberpunk or high fantasy, we’ll show you how to craft tales that overwhelm with wonder.
Notes
- Our Science Fiction & Fantasy course includes all “speculative fiction”—an umbrella that covers the subgenres of science fiction (hard, alternate reality, cyberpunk, etc.) and fantasy (high, urban, historical, etc.) as well as works of horror. Currently the material skews toward science fiction, but most of the craft teaching applies equally to fantasy and horror, and students are welcome to work on fantasy and horror projects.
- If you’re working in in the science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres, you may take Fiction I or (at the advanced level) Novel II First Draft or Novel II Critique, or one of our genre courses: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Romance, Mystery.
- If you’re working on a YA novel, you may take a Fiction/Novel course, or a “genre” course, or you may take a Children’s Book course, where the full spectrum of children’s books will be covered.
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of the science fiction and fantasy genres, and gets you writing a short story (or two) or a novel. Course components:
- Lectures
- Writing exercises
- Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times)
Online classes
- Week 1
- Introduction to Science Fiction & Fantasy: What is speculative fiction? Playing “what if?” Finding ideas.
- Week 2
- Character: What makes a character memorable. Backstory. Protagonist. Antagonist. Characters revealed through dialogue, description, actions, and thought.
- Week 3
- World Building: Creating new worlds. Working with the existing world. Consistency. World-building checkpoints. Sensory details.
- Week 4
- Story and Plot: Conflict. Stakes. Plot vs. story. Structure. Outlines. Synthesis vs. deus ex machina. Foreshadowing vs. telegraphing.
- Week 5
- Point of View: First person. Second person. Third person—various types. Handling multiple points of view.
- Week 6
- Voice, Style, Pacing: Types of voice and style. Pacing in story. Pacing in writing.
- Week 7
- Dialogue: Types of dialogue. Dialogue tags. Uses of dialogue. Characterization. When and where to include dialogue. Verisimilitude. Subtext. Otherness.
- Week 8
- Beginnings and Endings: Techniques for beginning. Techniques for ending. Avoiding a strong start and a weak finish. Surprise endings.
- Week 9
- SFF Conundrums: Exposition glut. Verisimilitude. Stereotypes and clichés.
- Week 10
- The Business: Understanding markets and trends for short stories and novels. Preparing your work. The submission process. Where to market your work. Dealing with rejection. Agents. Contracts. Resources, conferences, contests.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
About
- The Online classes bring students from all over the globe to Gotham—New York City’s most famous writing school.
- The Online classes happen asynchronously—not in “real time.” You can participate in class any time, day or night, but the classes advance week-by-week, and certain things should be accomplished within that week-long session.
- You can take an Online writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Online students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available.
- Aside from the convenience of time and location, you have a record of everything that transpires in class, which you can print out and keep for future reference. (The material is text and image, not video.)
