World Building for Fantasy and Science Fiction - Nottingham Trent University

Description

If you want to write fantasy or science fiction, you may need to invent your own world. It could be another Narnia, Wakanda or Dune. One of the fun aspects of storytelling is making up your own imaginary land. But it is not easy. Could you overload readers with too much background information? Is your world engaging? How do you work backstory into narrative without losing the plot? And how do you make up all those worlds to begin with? This course looks at good world building and how it enriches your storytelling. You will examine the building blocks, beginning with mythologies, timelines and locations moving onto magic and technology, imaginary creatures or alien races. At the same time, you’ll observe elements of writing such as narrative structure, character arcs, prose and style, editing and idea development, with a session dedicated to Jung’s fiction archetypes and how that can bring depth to your writing. There will be time to practice creating your own peoples and landscapes whilst you look at tips and tools for busy writers. You’ll begin with origins of world building as a concept, then break it down to study landscapes, legends and lore, cultures and civilisations, magic and technology, monsters and mythical beasts. Alongside this, you’ll consider narrative structure, character arcs, maps and timelines, info-dumping and ways to avoid it, online and real time resources, peer editing, and elements of style. You will also look at the current creative writing market and routes to publication with practice exercises, leading onto time for guided writing. You can invent new worlds in class or bring in your existing work if you want to develop this. During this course, you will: • Become familiar with worldbuilding concepts. • Study and practice foundations of worldbuilding, such as timelines, locations, and rules. • Familiarise yourself with tools and resources for worldbuilding, such as online sites, member organisations, writing groups, literature. • Increase your awareness of well-known modern speculative fiction authors. • Share work and practice peer critiquing. • Improve editing skills. • Brush up awareness on elements of writing, such as metaphor, sentence construction, prose style, grammar, voice. • Consider the relationship between modern mythologies and worldbuilding. • Become more confident in writing fiction. Tutor profile: Ian C Douglas is a Nottingham writer known for his science-fiction books, the Zeke Hailey series. He has a MA in Creative Writing (Distinction). As a prolific short story writer, around 50 of his short stories have been published, mostly fantasy or science-fiction. His graphic story was included in To End All Wars, an anthology nominated for two Eisner Awards. Ian won the Gravity Award in 2021 for The Haunting of the Jabberwocky, and the Eyelands Best Novel Award in 2020 for The Infinity Trap. In 2019, Ian was guest of honour at Malta’s Festival of Literary Stars. Ian runs creative writing workshops, mentors emerging writers and visits schools. He is a co-editor with Left Lion, Nottingham’s flagship cultural magazine, and co-founder of both the Nottingham Writers Studio and the East Midlands Society of Authors branch. Ian has served as Nottingham’s Literacy Ambassador for charity and was a regular guest on Notts TV. The course is focussed on writing fiction for publication. It will contribute to your toolkit to ensure that you are well-prepared to pursue a successful career in the competitive field of creative writing.

Cancellation policy

Medium - Cancellation and a full refund can be obtained up to 4 weeks before the course starts

Maker

Nottingham Trent University

with Craft Courses since 2015

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