FANTASY WRITING

• Introduction to the instructor
• Overview of assignment and course structure
• Discussion of final project

Get oriented with the course framework, explore what makes fantasy storytelling unique, and identify whether you write best as a Map or a Compass writer.

• Core elements of successful fantasy storytelling
• Map vs. Compass writing styles
• Course structure and what you'll create
• Story breakdown: Why The Hobbit still works
• Workshop: The story that changed you

Assignment #1: Writing Style Self-Assessment
Complete a guided self-assessment of reflections and mini writing exercises to identify whether you're a Map or Compass writer.

Build the emotional foundation of your novel by giving your protagonist a meaningful goal, a believable flaw, and a transformation that gives your story purpose.

• Building compelling protagonists
• Wants versus needs
• Emotional wounds and internal conflict
• Character arcs that drive story
• Story breakdown: The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
• Workshop: Describe your protagonist without appearance or backstory

Assignment #2: Character Profile
Create a complete character profile covering your protagonist's emotional wound, greatest desire, defining flaw, internal lie, and transformation arc.

Explore the major fantasy subgenres, current publishing trends, and how genre shapes the promises you make to readers before you write another page.

• Major fantasy subgenres
• Reader expectations by market
• Choosing genre intentionally
• Additional examples: Fourth Wing, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Legends & Lattes
• Story breakdown: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
• Workshop: Identify your novel's genre and target readership in small groups

Assignment #3 (Optional): Genre Overview
Write a one-page overview identifying your genre, subgenre, target audience, and three comparable titles.

Learn to explain your novel in a sentence using techniques borrowed from publishing and Hollywood, clarifying your story before you write hundreds of pages.

• Premise vs. pitch vs. plot summary
• Writing a movie-style logline
• Building an elevator pitch
• Workshop: Pitch your novel in one sentence

Assignment #4: Positioning Package
Develop a movie-style logline, a 150-word pitch, three comparable titles, and a one-sentence social pitch for your novel.

Discover how point of view and narrative voice let every page sound unmistakably like your protagonist, not just clever prose or careful word choice.

• Choosing the right point of view
• Developing a distinctive narrative voice
• Avoiding characters who all sound alike
• Story breakdown: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
• Workshop: Rewrite one scene from three character perspectives

Assignment #5: Opening Page in Voice
Write your novel's opening page focused entirely on establishing a distinct narrative voice.

Design supporting characters, mentors, rivals, and love interests who force your protagonist to grow, challenge their beliefs, and complicate every important decision.

• Creating memorable supporting characters
• Believable relationships and chemistry
• Writing compelling antagonists
• Story breakdown: The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
• Workshop: Build a relationship map for your protagonist

Assignment #6 (Optional): Conflicting Desires Scene
Write a scene where two characters want different things but neither says exactly what they mean.

Learn to choose the right worldbuilding details instead of more of them, shaping geography, culture, and history so every element serves your story.

• Building authentic cultures
• Governments, religion, and social structures
• Choosing details readers actually need
• Story breakdown: The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
• Workshop: Show how one location shapes the people who live there

Assignment #7: World Profile
Build a world profile covering geography, culture, government, religion, and one defining historical event tied to your protagonist's daily life.

Design a magic system with real limitations and costs, exploring how magic shapes society instead of solving every problem for your protagonist.

• Hard vs. soft magic systems
• Designing limitations and meaningful costs
• How magic shapes society
• Story breakdown: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Additional example: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
• Workshop: Answer three core questions about your magic system

Assignment #8: Magic with a Cost
Write a scene where your protagonist uses magic to solve a problem but pays a price they didn't anticipate.

Break scenes into their essential building blocks, using dialogue, description, and subtext together to reveal character and keep every page moving forward.

• Building scenes with purpose
• Writing natural dialogue
• Using subtext instead of exposition
• Story breakdown: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
• Workshop: Identify what changes across one of your scenes

Assignment #9: Revise a Scene
Revise one scene of your manuscript, focusing on dialogue, subtext, character objectives, and scene purpose.

Explore pacing, escalating conflict, and chapter endings that make readers eager to continue, and learn one of storytelling's hardest skills: knowing what not to explain.

• Raising stakes naturally
• Building narrative momentum
• Compelling chapter endings
• Story breakdown: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
• Workshop: Rewrite a chapter ending around an unanswered question

Assignment #10: Revise for Pacing
Revise your opening chapter or a later chapter, focusing on pacing, chapter endings, and reader curiosity.

Explore story structure through tools built for both Map writers and Compass writers, tackling the momentum problems that stall every fantasy novel's middle.

• Three-act structure
• Alternative plotting methods
• Reverse outlining for discovery writers
• Story breakdown: The Will of the Many by James Islington
• Workshop: Build a beat sheet or reverse outline for Act One

Assignment #11: Act One Roadmap
Build a roadmap for the first act of your novel using the planning method that fits your writing style.

Learn how different genres shape pacing, payoff, and endings, and evaluate whether your current outline actually delivers the experience you promised readers.

• Blending genres successfully
• Understanding reader expectations
• Creating satisfying endings
• Story breakdown: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Additional examples: Fourth Wing, Dungeon Crawler Carl, The House in the Cerulean Sea
• Workshop: Identify your novel's primary and secondary genres

Assignment #12 (Optional): Reader Promise
Write a one-page Reader Promise describing the emotional experience you want readers to have, and three scenes that deliver it.

Ask better questions about your manuscript, from whether every scene earns its place to whether every chapter leaves readers wanting more.

• Developmental editing
• Strengthening pacing
• Identifying weak scenes
• Working with beta readers
• Story breakdown: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
• Workshop: Troubleshoot a struggling scene in small groups

Assignment #13: Chapter Revision
Revise one chapter using the revision checklist provided in class.

Learn how successful fantasy novels create irresistible openings without prophecy, explosions, or information dumps, so agents and readers stay confident from page one.

• What readers expect from an opening
• Creating curiosity without confusion
• Common opening mistakes
• Story breakdown: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
• Workshop: Exchange opening pages with a partner for feedback

Assignment #14: Opening Chapter Revision
Revise your opening chapter using the techniques and feedback from class.

Compare traditional publishing, self-publishing, and hybrid careers, and choose the submission or launch path that best supports your personal goals as a writer.

• Traditional vs. self-publishing vs. hybrid careers
• What literary agents look for
• Query letters and submission packages
• Protecting your intellectual property
• Workshop: Develop your publishing or launch plan

Assignment #15: Publishing Package
Complete a traditional submission package (query letter, synopsis, strategy) or an independent launch roadmap (marketing, positioning, timeline).

Develop an authentic author brand, grow your readership, and think of your stories as intellectual property as you present your finished project to the class.

• Building an authentic author brand
• Growing your readership over time
• Stories as intellectual property
• Workshop: Final Portfolio Presentations