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Rethink Your Worldbuilding

Learn how to plan a coherent world that serves your speculative fiction writing.

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Rethink Your Worldbuilding

Rethink Your Worldbuilding

Learn how to plan a coherent world that serves your speculative fiction writing.

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Registrations Closed

About

Novels with speculative elements require authors to establish how the world of the novel is different from our world. Often, worldbuilding classes cover an exhaustive list of elements in a society. This class aims to focus your planning and avoid becoming overwhelmed or spending time making rules that never affect your story. 

Instead of making a list of polities and royal genealogies, we'll discuss what your choices say about the story you want to tell, and what's important to put on the page. By taking each author’s existing interests and knowledge, we will work to make cohesive, interesting worlds. 

This is not a class that subscribes to the Brandon Sanderson school of magic systems, although proper respect will be paid. The merits of different magic systems will be discussed, as well as the thematic resonances of each. Instead of rules, we'll talk about what matters, what is memorable, and what is unique about the stories you want to tell.

Class Policies

Ages 14 and up are welcome.

Instructor
Alec Marsh

Alec was born and raised in the PNW and thrives in the dark, weird spaces of fiction. They are an associate editor for Duck Prints Press and an alumnus of Viable Paradise 2023. They have stories in several anthologies through Duck Prints Press, in Dirty Diamonds vol 10, and in the forthcoming New Year New Anthology. Their novels explore the tension between queer identity and conventional measures of success through the lens of fantasy. They have a BA in history from the University of Washington.

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