Creative Writing: World Building for Writing or Games
Val Selvaggio M.Ed.
Average rating:4.8Number of reviews:(89)
A lecture-based course exploring primary steps to establish world design and layout, for use in writing or games.
Class experience
US Grade 8 - 11
** Instructor's Note ** This course is primarily lecture-based. Students will learn how to make four decisions a writer or designer must make about the world they are creating for fiction or game use. Through group discussion and short exercise assignments, students will make these decisions based on their own "fictional" places. No prior knowledge is necessary. Imagination required! Each week's activity is one small assignment to illustrate the application of the topic discussed to...
This class is taught in English.
Students are encouraged to participate in the Weekly Quote and offer their thoughts and share their opinions with other students or the instructor, however this is offered as an icebreaker. (even if they disagree with the author's statement) Students will be given a number of tools to use in the aid of their world building, and I will also share several articles on the writing process that I encourage them to read, but there is no assignment required for those. Students will also learn the importance of research, and reading more deeply into subjects that are not their expertise, but are required knowledge to portray their fictional world as a plausible, full place, living and breathing on the page. Students will learn what types of questions an author must ask, in order to build and grow a character from the beginning of their story until the character becomes something greater (or worse). This class does not simply focus on the building of a hero, but in how that character is defined by his or her path and the interactions the character has with their adversary along the way.
I offer this class because I am currently working on the last of three novels of historical fiction, and have been an avid reader of Tolkein and a constant game enthusiast for AD&D, and numerous computer games of fantasy genre. I have written for my own worlds, and have acted as a gamemaster for AD&D and Palladium Fantasy RPG for over 20 years.
Homework Offered
Assessments Offered
The best way to achieve this is for the student to share their work with the instructor in order for such an assessment to be made, or at least to receive feedback. I NEVER negatively critique a student's work, only offer them further questions that will assist them in adding to the depth of their fictional place. One helpful way for the instructor to make any assessment, is if the student participates or comments on the weekly quote. A student can do this by offering his/her thoughts on the conversation builder exercises. These will also prompt conversation between any additional students in the class, as well as with the instructor.Grades Offered
I post to our classroom bulletin board, each of the following items on a weekly basis: * Each week's Live Session lecture notes * links to various articles pertaining to writing * Each Week's Suggested Activity PDF * Various additional links to useful tools for World Building
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
I usually recommend this course for students over 13. However, I do use plot examples from televised science fiction shows that possess some violence or relationship content, but I do not condone or tell the student that they should watch it without their parents' consent or approval. Some of the discussed content comes from shows that are not typically recommended for younger people, even though the decisions of what a child views on television should be parent-monitored for content. The science fiction show in question is rather graphic, and does possess elements that I would not allow my own 16 year-old daughter to view. The show I am speaking of is "The Expanse." While it does have content that I recommend a parent discern for themselves if their child should be permitted to view it, I do draw on examples of how the writers utilized a difference of calendar and timekeeping between Mars and Earth, as well as the use of gravity and anchoring methods used in space by the people who lived in the Asteroid Belt.
Average rating:4.8Number of reviews:(89)
Currently I am teaching a four week course called "World Building for Fiction and Games." I love to teach all of the elements of constructing a concrete, "real" feeling world. A world the student can use for novelization, or to enhance their...
Group Class
$70
for 4 classes1x per week, 4 weeks
60 min
Completed by 517 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 13-18
1-5 learners per class
