Postgraduate Course: Writing Speculative Fiction (fusion on-site) (EFIE11090)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Explore visions of the future through reading selected short fiction, learning about the craft of fiction, and writing and workshopping your own science fiction story in this friendly introduction to the genre. |
| Course description |
Writing Speculative Fiction offers you the opportunity to engage imaginatively with visions of possible futures by using creative writing as a mode of speculative enquiry. In the process of creating your own science fiction (SF) short story, you will read and discuss selected examples from the genre as well as exploring what makes any good story work through a focus on craft, including short craft-based activities in class (or synchronously/asynchronously online, depending on time zone).
This is an intensive course that encompasses critical and creative reading in advance of a two-day block of teaching, during which we will: explore definitions of science fiction, and writing as a mode of enquiry; examine four SF short-stories, with a focus on premise, character, perspective and worldbuilding; experiment with a series of guided writing activities. On day 1 there will be a Q&A with a visiting SF author; on day 2 we will model the creative writing workshop experience in class in preparation for the online asynchronous workshop in which you will refine your own story prior to submission.
The teaching will draw on different pedagogical approaches from mini-lectures and Q&As to writing activities and lively discussions in and outside the classroom. The course will entail fusion delivery (physical/online), with interaction between co-present and remote students, through recorded sessions and online forums accessible to all. Teaching will be streamed online and recorded for access by synchronous and asynchronous remote students. Panel and group discussions will be digitally recorded by students and continued online. Following the intensive block of teaching, there will be a whole-class workshop to discuss students' story premises, along with asynchronous small student groups to workshop students' stories.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Remain open to criticism and respond effectively and creatively to feedback on their creative work.
- Work from initial conception through multiple drafts to the final version of a story.
- Demonstrate understanding of formal elements of craft in fiction and work creatively with a critical understanding of theories and concepts of the science fiction genre.
- Interrogate ideas using fiction as a mode of engaging imaginatively with visions of possible futures.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Primary creative texts will be selected for each year group and may change year on year.
Critical Texts:
VanderMeer, Jeff, and Ann Vandermeer. 'Introduction' in Big Book of Science Fiction. New York: Random House US, 2016.
Fowler, Bo. 'The Science of Fiction'. New Humanist, The Rationalist Association, 31 May 2007, newhumanist.org.uk/articles/437/the-science-of-fiction.
Craft Texts:
VanderMeer, Jeff. [excerpts from] Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction. New York: Abrams, 2013.
Le Guin, Ursula K. [excerpt from] Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story. Boston: Mariner, 2015.
Clarke, Lindsay. 'Going the Last Inch' in Bell, Julia, and Paul Magrs (eds.) The Creative Writing Coursebook': Forty Writers Share Advice and Exercises for Poetry and Prose / Edited by Julia Bell and Paul Magrs. London: Macmillan, 2001.
Johnson, Charles. 'On Craft and revision' in The Way of the Writer': Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling / Charles Johnson. First Scribner edition. New York: Scribner, 2016.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course develops graduate skills in research, enquiry and communication (SCQF 1 and 4), and the attributes of intellectual autonomy and personal effectiveness in collaborative working (SCQF 3 and 5), and provides an opportunity to practice existing technical and creative skills (SCQF 2 and 4). |
| Keywords | Science Fiction,Speculative Fiction,Creative Writing,Short Stories,Fiction,Futures |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jane Alexander
Tel: (0131 6)50 8991
Email: Jane.Alexander@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Zoe Hogg
Tel:
Email: Zoe.Hogg@ed.ac.uk |
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