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.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Ross unveils her personal method for developing the symbiotic relationship between fantasy worlds and the characters who navigate them. In Magical Echoes: Worldbuilding That Supports Character Arc, Rebecca shares her process for building unique worlds that enrich, inform, and fulfill the protagonist’s journey. Students will investigate inner maps, study worldbuilding elements that pique the reader’s interest and inform the quest. They will also take a deep dive into magic and magic systems, and create folklore that echoes the character’s arc. Using her novels as case studies, Rebecca shares the frameworks and tools she uses to craft bestselling fantasies.