Crafting Compelling Sci-Fi with Georgia Clark

In this two-week online writing class, you'll craft compelling science fiction by drawing upon your own sociological, political, and economical conditions.

Your Instructor: Georgia Clark, author of 'Parched'

Where: Online — Available everywhere!

When: This class is not currently enrolling. To be notified when it is offered again, Click Here

Enrollment: Limited to 25 Students

Price: $175

Class Description

Neil Gaiman once said there are three simple phrases that kickstart every new world:

Science fiction is made possible through three phrases:

1. “What if…?” gives us change, a departure from our lives.

2. “If only…” lets us explore the glories and dangers of tomorrow.

3. “If this goes on…” takes an element of life today, something clear and obvious and normally something troubling, and asks what would happen if that thing, that one thing, became bigger, and changed the way we thought and behaved.

By beginning to flesh out these phrases, this two-week intensive will help you actualize your own vision into a compelling, meaningful, page-turning, and truly original science fiction premise.

From The Hunger Games to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, from Nineteen Eighty Four to Brave New World, science fiction has inventively examined the human condition, like no other genre. These classic stories tap into universal hopes, fears, and dreams. Articulating the collective unconscious is a writing technique that is engaging and unforgettable.

No matter what your writing experience, instructor Georgia Clark, author of the critically-acclaimed Parched, will help you create a premise that is a rock-solid foundation for your next great novel.

This class will also provide the chance for you to meet fellow sci-fi enthusiasts and create all-important connections and networks for after the class has ended. It will include in-depth lectures, writing assignments to put the lessons into practice, and interaction with Georgia and fellow students, from Q&A's to critiques. It will be a whole lot of weird, crazy fun!

What This Class Covers

Week 1: A Strong Foundation

What are common elements of sci-fi? Robots (often evil ones), the future, space travel, time travel, parallel worlds, alien lifeforms. These are metaphors to explore humanity and often, our lack thereof. Most futuristic science fictions explore dystopias (or utopias that turn out to be dystopias) to critique power, society, class, and the effects of technology. Essentially: what it means to be human.

Assignment: In this first week you'll look at how famous sci-fi novels effectively imagine and explore an element of society, and then you'll put what you have learned into practice.

Week 2: The Art of World-Building

Because sci-fi generally does not take place in the here and now, you need to do a lot of world-building. This means understanding, expanding, and exploiting for maximum effect the fiction you have created. Your world needs to feel full and believable (according to its own internal logic). If you effectively world-build out your idea, you’ll find chances to maximise the drama and tension on the page.

Assignment: You'll look at particularly effective examples of this, and have you world-build your concept from week one.

Goals Of This Class

  • Turn your hopes, dreams and fears into a story that resonates
  • Sharpen your ability to ask ‘What if’
  • Develop your ability to create, strengthen and execute a premise
  • Free your imagination and stop writing clichés
  • Develop a concept to build a novel or short story 
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