Become a Demigod with Delilah S. Dawson

In this two-week crash course version of Delilah S. Dawson's hit workshop, learn to build a living, breathing, fantastical world—with real rules, real stakes, and real mechanics.

Your Instructor: Delilah S. Dawson, author of HIT, WAKE OF VULTURES, and SERVANTS OF THE STORM

Where: Online — Available everywhere!

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

Enrollment: 16 students

Price: $175

Class Description

Welcome to demi-godhood.

You make the rules, draw the maps, control the characters, and decide exactly what color the sky will be. There are as many ways to build worlds as there are worlds to build. Which is to say: infinite. That will either scare the pants off you or set your mouth watering and your fingers twitching.

Put on your god-pants and get ready to write.

In this crash course version of Delilah S. Dawson's hit worldbuilding class, you'll learn different ways to approach worldbuilding, and how to insure that the world and characters you've created are so real, rich, and strong that they'll suck the reader in from the first page and keep them hungry for more. After all, there's a reason people go to the trouble to learn Klingon or Elvish.

Delilah is the author of the critically-acclaimed Hit, Wake of Vultures, and Servants of the Storm, as well as the wildly-imaginative Blud books, where steampunk meets carnie fiction meets science-fiction meets horror meets... well, Delilah covers a lot of ground.

If you have a dream, a hook, a character, a name, a map, the seed of a story idea, Delilah can help you build the world around it.

Whether you start with a character and build a world around them or start with an entire universe to focus in on your story, there are certain things you're going to need. Pretend you're a god building your first Adam.


Want to learn more about Delilah? Check out our interview with her!

"The worst advice I see is anything that recommends itself as THE ONLY WAY. Every writer has a different path, and there are infinite ways to write, to find an agent, and to get published. If there was A SECRET, it wouldn't be a secret at all..."

What This Class Covers

Week 1

Who runs the world? You. We'll talk about how to build a living, breathing world and people it with unforgettable characters.

Assignment: Give us a brief but powerful 1,000-word World Profile including your hook, your world framework, and descriptions of your main characters.

Week 2

No matter how well you know your world, putting it on the page is your true test. We'll discuss how to write a great first chapter with just the right amount of worldbuilding, character, description, and backstory on the page.

Assignment: Write or edit your first chapter for up to 2,000 words of critique by the instructor and your fellow students. This is your chance to see if you started in a compelling place and if we'd keep reading.

Goals Of This Class

  • How to be a demigod and capture the Erymanthian Boar (boar husbandry not guaranteed)
  • How to build your world from the bottom-up or from the top-down
  • The foundations of building a rock-solid world.
  • How to avoid the pitfalls that can happen when worldbuilding
  • How much of your worldbuilding to show on the page
  • How to use small details to bring your world into focus without boring the reader
  • Tropes to avoid, or at least be wary of
  • How to wow an agent in your first chapter
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