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 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
- Lesson One: The Dark Arts of the Gothic: Crafting Subversive Tales in Troubling Times (14:01)
- Lesson Two: Intoxicating Tone and Atmosphere: How to Wield Vivid Language With Purpose (15:00)
- Lesson Three: Spooky Spaces: Imbuing Setting with Character, Theme, and Villainy (14:53)
- Module Two Q&A (61:53)
- Module Two Summary
- Lesson One: Pity: Creating Vulnerable Characters That Readers Fear For (17:26)
- Lesson Two: The Art of Scaring Your Reader: Specific Techniques for Deepening Emotional Resonance (16:06)
- Lesson Three: In The Monster Lab: Delving into Folklore and Beyond To Power Endings That Land (17:06)
- Module Three Q&A (62:54)
- Module Three Summary
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.
