Speculative Fiction: Creating and Writing Alternative Worlds

Description

Open to all.

Limited to 12 participants.

This workshop welcomes participants at all levels of experience who are interested in writing speculative fiction or simply adding wonder to their stories. For the purposes of this workshop, speculative fiction is broadly defined to include anything from magic realism to hard-core science fiction. 

Participants will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of speculative fiction and its various sub-genres while sharpening their knowledge of craft, with a special focus on successful world-building and character development. Finally, each workshop participant should be prepared to present their own work of speculative fiction of up to 4500 words for discussion and feedback.

Each session of the workshop will focus on a different aspect of craft and will include a short presentation with examples from classic and contemporary works. This will be followed by a moderated discussion and a hands-on component. For the first two sessions, the hands-on component will consist of a short writing exercise. Beginning the third week, two participants per session will receive feedback on their own work. Participants can choose to submit a short story, an excerpt from a longer work, or speculative poetry.

At the end of the workshop, I will share ideas about how to move forward towards perfecting a manuscript for publication. I will also provide information on how to get more involved in the world of speculative literature.