COURSE DESCRIPTION
Award winning author Zoraida Córdova guides students through the different entry points of science fiction and fantasy worlds in Fantasy Gateways: Approaches to Magical Worldbuilding.
Drawing from her extensive experience, Zoraida Córdova walks students through her worldbuilding process, including character, setting, and magic system development. Presenting her own works as case studies, Córdova shows students how to bridge the fantastic to reality through research and cultural analogs. Students will join Córdova as they map a hero’s quest using her preferred story beats, research checklist, and worldbuilding questions. This course applies to all writing genres, expanding beyond novels into screenplays, comics, video games, and more.
COURSE LAYOUT
This course includes three learning modules. Each module is broken into three individual lessons that include video lectures as well as assignments, exercises, and opportunities for self-reflection. Modules are designed to be completed in sequential order as each lesson builds on top of the previous one. Library courses also include recordings from the Live Q&A sessions with the author completed during the live course.
CURRICULUM
MEET YOUR FACULTY
Since 2012, Zoraida has written more than two dozen novels and short stories, including The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, Valentina Salazar Is Not a Monster Hunter, and Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence. Her 2016 novel Labyrinth Lost, book one in the Brooklyn Brujas trilogy, won an International Latino Book Award. When she’s not writing, Zoraida serves on the board of We Need Diverse Books, cohosts the writing podcast, Deadline City, and develops intellectual property for Cake Creative & Electric Postcard Entertainment as a Tastemaker. She’s the editor of the SFF anthology, Reclaim the Stars, co-editor of the bestselling anthology Vampires Never Get Old, and occasionally writes adult romance novels as Zoey Castile and other pseudonyms.
