This is our catalog of courses. We will occasionally adjust the course listing to reflect the addition of new courses and the retirement of others.
Learn how to write creatures, monsters, and aliens with this four-lesson course. You’ll come away with a new knowledge of storytelling, the elements of fiction, how to increase your creativity, and great writing skills—and it’s a lot of fun!
Total class meetings: 4
Duration of each class: 55 minutes
Prerequisite: Can be taken alongside the 11 Series Fiction Writing courses
Suggested grade level: 8th-12th grade
Suggested credit: One-third (1/3) of a semester’s credit for Creative Writing or Fiction Writing
Description
Join this four-session course and learn the craft of story writing with creatures, monsters, and aliens! Using the elements of great storytelling, we’ll craft unique characters and learn how to create a world and setting for your story, build a compelling character arc with conflict and reader engagement, and understand the rich history of creatures and more in current fiction. We’ll also dive into the elements of society, economics, biology, environmental factors, and genre that all great fiction writers use to create believable and story-worthy creatures, monsters, and aliens. With this boot camp, you’ll hone your creativity and improve your writing. This is a fun course that you’ll definitely enjoy!
Outline
Class 1: Story Writing with Creatures, Monsters, and Aliens—What’s inside a story; common monsters in current fiction; genres with monsters and more; children’s literature versus middle grade versus YA (what’s the difference and why is it important).
Class 2: Characters—How to create a realistic creature, monster, or alien; creating your own unique creature; biology and environmental factors; magic versus science origins; how characters integrate into society and your world/storytelling.
Class 3: Worldbuilding & Setting—How to create a world supporting creatures, monsters, and aliens; how creatures change society; the economics of creatures, monsters, and aliens; how time plays into worldbuilding (present, past, and future influences/differences).
Class 4: Character Arcs & Conflict—how to build a story for your creature, monster, and alien that engages readers and keeps them turning the page; integrating all the elements of great storytelling into your story (including theme, dialogue, point of view, etc.).
Materials and Homework
Course materials: All materials are provided free by the instructor. All documents are turned in as Microsoft Word documents. If you do not own Microsoft Word 2007 or a later version, you can use a system such as Google Docs that converts to Word documents FREE.
Homework: Students will practice the concepts learned in the recordings, with short reading materials and resources between classes. One (1) to three (3) hours per class is expected for homework. An answer key/grading rubric is provided.
