Creative Writing courses in Sydney. Open to everyone.

Develop your creative style the smart way with Creative Writing courses in Sydney at the University of Sydney.

Learn how to write science fiction and fantasy for the current market. In this highly practical course participants explore how to achieve an ‘invisible’ storytelling voice; master dialogue, pacing and ‘info dumping’; and use handy techniques for building fantasy worlds. Each session apart from sessions one and six will have evaluation and feedback components as part of that week’s class.

Course Content

Week 1: Course Overview / Storytelling Basics

• Invisibility, Euphony, Pacing, Patterning, Voice of Truth / Execution vs Idea
• Practical Exercise 1 / Home Exercise 1

Week 2: Thinking ‘Genre’ / Special Considerations*

• Modes and Codes, Logic Testing, Hooks and Grabs
• "The Turkey City Lexicon"
• Practical Exercise 2 / Home Exercise 2

Week 3: World-Building

• "The Fourteen Things"
• Brainstorming Methods
• Practical Exercise 3 / Home Exercise 3

Week 4: Characterisation and Dialogue

• Memes and Metastatements / Characterisation through Dialogue
• Practical Exercise 4 / Home Exercise 4

Week 5: Marketing Considerations / Writing to Order / Judging Style

• Practical Exercise 5 / Home Exercise 5

Week 6: Making the Grade / Professional Touches / Trademark Styles

• Practical Exercise 6 and Overall Evaluations

Course Outcomes

At the completion of the course, participants should be able to:

1. Understand the importance of such key elements of narrative ‘patterning’ as ‘invisibility’ and ‘voice of truth’ - fundamental aspects of all successful storytelling.
2. Give and receive constructive feedback on their own work and the work of others that is informed and useful.
3. Have a practical and useful insight into such editorial realities as ‘poison-tasting’, logic-testing, professional manuscript presentation and prevailing market strategies.
4. Master narrative cues and dialogue cues to improve characterisation and pacing in narrative.
5. Have a thorough grounding in both the requirements of F/SF story in terms of genre essentials and world building.
6. Gain a solid introduction to the realities of storytelling from a leading writer of the fantastic.

Reading

• The Locus Awards, Voyager 2004, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Charles N. Brown
• The Year’s Best Australian SF and Fantasy, edited by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt