Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writing Course Online

Learn to write horror, science fiction and fantasy in this unique self-paced online course.   These genre’s are central to our society, our myths and our storytelling, consider some of our most popular books and movies such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and The Walking Dead.  Horror allows us to feel fear, fantasy allows us to extend our imagination and science fiction allows us to explore the impact of science on humanity and our place in the universe.  All three can combine together or not.

• 100 hour course
• self-paced study
• payment plans available (interest free)
• full tutor support

Whats your genre?

Knowing what genre, you want to write in can be difficult is you enjoy all equally and would like to imagine them all in your portfolio of stories. The thing with genre is that there are a lot of tropes, memes and themes that get used to distinguishing them from other stories or other genres. A science fiction story might have a space ship, but one would look odd in a fantasy story with knights and dragons. That said, there have been many a fantasy story written with space ships and with these stories the genre is called cross-genre. If you want to write cross-genre then it is welcomed along with all others mentioned or not mentioned. The key thing is to read widely in what you want to write and learn from those authors the elements in use that distinguish the work in their chosen field. Style is a major attribute, setting, science, elements, mode of speech and transport. If you have a fantasy world it is important to know, a horse needs rest every few hours, water and food, and to get a communication across fifty kilometres may take two days. Knowing the genre will teach you what is possible and what isn’t possible. This will apply to magic. If magic exists in the world then it must be consistent throughout the story; the magic needs to make sense to the characters, it cannot be just a surprise for all involved and just say magic. The genre is harsh on this type of inconsistency.

Read an article on science fiction and horror writing by course writer Robert Stephenson >>

There are 8 Lessons in this course:

Lesson 1

• • Introduction
  • Where it All Began
  • Becoming a Writer
  • The Work Place
  • Equipment
  • Assignment Presentation
  • Meditation – Contemplation
  • What to Write

Lesson 2

• • Understanding Genre
  • Fantastic Fiction
  • Urban and Paranormal
  • Lofty Consideration
  • Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
  • Creation of the Short Story
  • Story Length
  • Short Story Sample
  • Cliché Opening
  • The Novel

Lesson 3

• • A Word from Richard Harland
  • Writer’s Groups

Lesson 4

• • Elements of Story
  • Thinking in Circles
  • Writing the End
  • An Overview of Plots
  • A Summary
  • General Ignorance
  • What are Themes
  • All Just Fiction
  • Sub-Genres
  • The Final Appraisal

Lesson 5

• • Writing Tools
  • The Skills of Writing
  • The Premise
  • Developing the Premise
  • The Sentence
  • Show, Don’t Tell

Lesson 6

• • The Question of Dialogue
  • In Examination Part 1
  • In Examination Part 2
  • Exposition

Lesson 7

• • Stop and Think
  • Writing the Perfect Scene

Lesson 8

• • Cigarette Burns
  • The Novel
  • The Synopsis
  • The Principles of the Synopsis
  • A Note on Characters
  • Genre Mood and Atmosphere
  • The Senses
  • The Basement
  • Building a Fantasy World
  • The Publishing Business