Fantasy and Science Fiction Short Stories

Week 1: Getting Started

Students will work together to understand the rules, policies, and expectations of the course and will begin to explore what makes the two main genres of the class – fantasy and science fiction – so popular.

Week 2: Defining Genres

Students will work to define the genres of science fiction and fantasy and will unpack what makes a great first sentence.

Week 3: Literary Terminology

Students will be introduced to the literary terms they will use to analyze stories and will practice creative writing by creating a character and a brief story based on a classmate’s profile.

Week 4: Hard Science Fiction

During this week, students will learn about a sub-genre of sci-fi, “hard” science fiction and will choose an article from current scientific thought to inspire their first story.

Week 5: Peer Review

Students will share and provide feedback to each other on their first story – a “very short story” based on the article chosen last week. They will also work together in groups to learn about a famous sci-fi or fantasy author.

Week 6: Revision and Types of Fantasy

In this week, students will both incorporate feedback and revise their very short story and will learn about two sub-genres of fantasy, “high” and “low.” They will write a formal compare/contrast essay about two different stories in the two different sub-genres.

Week 7: Exposition

Students will conclude their group project and will help each other discover an idea for their next story, a medium-length fantasy tale.

Week 8: Worldbuilding

Students will learn about and explore the idea of worldbuilding, looking at how exemplar stories and authors craft their worlds. They will work to apply this understanding as they develop an outline for their own medium-length fantasy story.

Week 9: Dialogue

Students will evaluate the effect of dialogue in several stories and will practice writing and revising dialogue as a tool of showing and not telling.

Week 10: Characterization

In this week’s discussion students will take on the idea of characterization and evaluate how authors they have read develop their characters. They will also revise and finalize their medium-length story and look ahead to their final story, a full-length, 8-10 page story in either genre.

Week 11: All the Elements

In this week, students will analyze how authors use all the elements they have studied thus far in the course in order to develop a clear and coherent story, world, and characters. They will continue with prewriting exercises for their final story.

Week 12: Theme and Drafting

Students will be introduced to and will analyze theme; they will understand the difference between a theme “concept” (or topic) and a theme statement (a complete idea) and will complete the first draft of their final story. They will also return to the idea of definitions and what traits characterize the two genres.

Week 13: Theme and Peer Review

Students will continue to explore theme and will complete the final round of peer review, offering their classmates feedback on their final stories.

Week 14: Revision

In this week, students will spend most of their time revising and finalizing their full-length story, as well as sharing some of their own favorite fantasy and sci-fi stories and movies.

Week 15: Wrap-up

The final week of the course will be spend saying goodbye and reflecting on the course and learning. Students will complete a proctored post-assessment and will read and provide positive commentary on each other’s final stories.