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.