Postgraduate Course: Writing Speculative Fiction (EFIE11510)
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 | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Writing Speculative Fiction invites you to imaginatively inhabit possible futures, using creative writing as a sophisticated mode of speculative enquiry. Throughout this course, you will craft an original science fiction (SF) short story, informed by the critical analysis of genre examples and a rigorous interrogation of narrative craft. Whether engaging in-person or via digital platforms, you will participate in stimulating and focussed activities. designed to sharpen your technical execution and creative vision. |
| 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.
This is an intensive course that encompasses critical and creative reading in advance of teaching. During classes 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; model the creative writing workshop experience in class in preparation for peer workshop/s 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.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute delivers many of its courses in hybrid mode. This means that you may have some online students joining sessions for this course. 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: in some cases, students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- All presentations, and whole class discussions will be recorded (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details).
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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
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Original Piece of Speculative Fiction (75%)
An original piece of speculative fiction of 2,500 - 3,500 words.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 2, 3, 4
2) Reflective Commentary (25%)
A 750 word reflection articulating the research question underpinning the story, its evolution, and a critical evaluation of what the fiction reveals.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 3, 4, 5 |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
Group and individual verbal feedback will take place during the teaching activities, and in a workshop with a particular focus on each student's premise.
Peer feedback is given via asynchronous group workshops taking place after the teaching activities and in advance of the submission deadline.
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| No Exam Information |
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. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| 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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