Details

This course invites you to explore the various genres and sub-genres of speculative fiction: that is, fiction that takes the world (or universe) as it is, and asks what things would be like if they were just a little different, or maybe a lot. The course is ideal for writers of fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, slipstream, alt-history, New Weird, cyberpunk, steampunk, infernokrusher and manga-style fiction. It’s probably not the right course for you if you’re writing fan-fiction.

The course includes lessons on various aspects of the genre, including the basics of character, viewpoint, worldbuilding and so on, but also material on the history and future of the genre, its political side, its relationship to mainstream/realist and literary fictions, utopias and dystopias, fantasy’s romance with the medieval, cyberpunk’s love-in with the Victorians and hard-sf’s focus on scientific change.

The main focus of the course is, however, on helping you get your writing project/s flowing and improving your craft. We look at all of these ideas and themes not as readers, but as writers, examining them for how they can stimulate us as writers, how we can learn from them, and how we can move beyond them. Each lesson includes background material, hints and tips, guidelines for further reading and writing prompts/exercises for you to play with.

Prerequisites

You don't need to have any prior experience or knowledge to enrol in this course, although you may find it helpful to have a play around in our free online courses Playing with Prose or Playing With Poetry, or check out the free online Book Club in order to familiarise yourself with the technical aspects of studying with Olvar Wood onLine (OWL).

All of the courses in OWL are based on our philosophy that writers thrive through a mixed diet of reading, writing and thinking. If you’ve never thought about your writing practice that way before, or you’d like to learn more about how to integrate your writing, reading and thinking, you might find our Chapter One course The Writing Life useful for opening up your practice, exploring ideas around inspiration, writers block, how to ‘read like a writer’ and so on.

If you’ve never written fiction before, you might also like to consider our Chapter Two course, Fiction, which explores the basics of writing prose fiction across a range of genres.

Course Facilitators

Children’s Writing is written and taught by Dr Nike Bourke.

Nike is the award-winning author of the novels The Bone Flute and The True Green of Hope, as well as the children's picture book What The Sky Knows (illustrated by Stella Danalis). She was the winner of the QLD Premier's Literary Award, shortlisted for two Children's Book Council of Australia awards, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Award. She holds a doctorate in literature and creative writing. Nike has also won several short story awards.

Learning Online

It’s a good idea, if you’ve never used an online learning facility before, to check out our free courses before you sign up for Speculative Fiction. Trying out one of our free courses will give you an opportunity to see what our online courses look and feel like, and how most of the interaction works.

OWL’s online courses work by inviting you to engage with your tutor, and with other writers enrolled in the course through a range of interfaces, including chat rooms, discussion forums, wikis, and standard, content-based webpages.

Throughout the site, you’ll find there is instant help available – usually indicated by a<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->, which you can click to get more information. If you still can’t work out what to do, simply post a message in the ‘help!’ forum, or email your tutors.

Although the course is run online, we also ask you to work offline on your writing, using old-fashioned techniques like writing in a journal, stretching your imagination and reading, reading, reading.

To get the most out of this course, we recommend you set aside at least four hours for each lesson/week:

• <!--[if !supportLists]-->one hour to read the online lesson material;

• <!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->one hour to think and dream and mess about with ideas;

• <!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->one hour for trying out the various writing techniques each lesson includes;

• <!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->one hour for posting your writing, providing feedback or commentary on other writer’s work, participating in discussion forums and chats, and so on.

We recommend that you allocate a bit of extra time the first week to familiarise yourself with the online learning forum.

Content

This course is comprised of 12 lessons.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<!--[endif]-->Introduction and Overview

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<!--[endif]-->Utopian and Dystopian Narratives

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<!--[endif]-->Imagining the Past: Fantasy, Magic and the Medieval

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<!--[endif]-->Imagining the Future: Science and Cyberpunks

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a.<!--[endif]-->Writing Task One Due

<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<!--[endif]-->Worldbuilding One/Macro: Geography, History, Politics, Religion

<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<!--[endif]-->Worldbuildng Two/Micro: People, Places, Daily Life

<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<!--[endif]-->Character

<!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<!--[endif]-->Dialogue

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a.<!--[endif]-->Writing Task Two Due

<!--[if !supportLists]-->9.<!--[endif]-->Viewpoint

<!--[if !supportLists]-->10.<!--[endif]-->Story & Plot

<!--[if !supportLists]-->11.<!--[endif]-->Rewriting

<!--[if !supportLists]-->12.<!--[endif]-->Editing

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a.<!--[endif]-->Writing Task Three Due

Assessment/Feedback

There are three feedback opportunities during this course. These are opportunities for you to submit pieces of your own writing for feedback both from your peers in the course, and from the course mentor. This feedback will be in the form of written notes and will be focused on helping you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your writing, and on ways to move your writing forward. Feedback may include, where appropriate and relevant, advice about further reading, strategies for improving the work, potential markets for publication, etc.

Writing Task One: Due Week Four

• <!--[if !supportLists]-->Your first submission for feedback and discussion with your peers, up to a total of 5000 words, consists of text for a short story, or first chapter and synopsis for a novel length work.

Writing Task Two: Due Week Eight

• <!--[if !supportLists]-->Your second submission for feedback and discussion with your peers consists of a second short story or a second extract from your novel of up to 5000 words.

Writing Task Three: Due Week Twelve

• <!--[if !supportLists]-->Your third submission for feedback and discussion with your peers, again up to 5000 words, can include a revised earlier submission, a continuation of an earlier project or a new chapter or short story.

There is no marks-based assessment in this course. This is partly because we believe that a focus on grades – on getting a good-enough grade, on writing something to please your teacher or peers – can block you from exploring your writing in an open, exploratory and experimental way. It can get you all tied up in knots worrying about grades, when what you could be focused on is the experience of learning something new, taking risks, and having fun. So, while you won’t get a mark out of 100 for your story or extracts, you will get lots of feedback and concrete guidance about how to develop it further and/or where to submit your work for publication.

Resources

In order to gain the most out of this course you will be asked to engage with a range of material, including picture books, chapter books and works of non-fiction. All of the required readings for this course are available through the online interface as downloadable PDFs, word documents or webpages.

The course tutors will also encourage you to read material outside the set readings, and will recommend works or authors in response to your interactions in the course.