COURSE DESCRIPTION
The Dark Fantastic: Crafting Unputdownable Fantasy explores how techniques deployed by mystery and thriller, the Gothic, and horror can be used to build suspenseful, atmospheric, and thrilling fantasy. Isabel Cañas breaks down how mysteries and thrillers use pacing, foreshadowing, and red herrings to manipulate reader expectations and create tension and suspense.
Students will learn techniques employed by the Gothic to enrich their settings thematically, deepen atmosphere, and embrace the subversive. Finally, students will study how character is the beating heart of horror and will learn concrete methods for bringing emotion to life on the page in vivid, fresh ways. Throughout the course, Isabel draws on her critically-acclaimed, bestselling novels to demonstrate how stealing the best of what darker genres have to offer can only strengthen your own work, regardless of genre.
COURSE LAYOUT
This course includes three modules of teaching over the span of three weeks. Each module is broken into three individual lessons that include video lectures, assignments, exercises, and opportunities to participate in community discussions with classmates and Isabel Cañas. All three lessons for each module will go live at the beginning of their corresponding weeks, concluding with a live Q&A session hosted by Isabel Cañas at the end of each module.
LIVE COURSE DATES
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024 - OCTOBER 19, 2024
COURSE CURRICULM
MEET YOUR FACULTY
ISABEL CAÑAS is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After living in Mexico, Turkey, New York City, Scotland, and Egypt, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and heritage. Her work has been nominated for both a Bram Stoker Award and Goodreads Reader Choice Award.