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Fantasy Fiction Creative Writing: Gothic & Spooky (Semester Long)

8 week, online fiction workshop where we brainstorm funny, creepy ideas. Take a spooky, weird setting, some interesting characters, & start writing! Teen characters stumble upon ghosts, curses, locked chests, & other haunting mysteries.
Leeyanne Moore MFA
Average rating:
4.8
Number of reviews:
(228)
Class

What's included

8 live meetings
6 hrs 40 mins in-class hours
Mastery Evaluation
1 hour per week. Students are allowed to think about their stories and add to them at home during the week, then share them in class the next week.
Assessment
Students are keenly aware of their peer's reactions to their work. They know when everyone is listening breathlessly. They know when everyone is excited about their writing. Positive reinforcement for strong writing from the group of peers encourages students to write at a more challenging level.

Class Experience

US Grade 5 - 7
Beginner - Advanced Level
Students will revel in this class of creepy and kooky stories.  Whether you pick a heroine who silently screams uncovering the secrets in a decaying estate, or werewolves who are addicted to baseball, we'll all have fun together writing stories full of gloom and ghostly hauntings.  

FOR PARENTS: 
We will start by brainstorming a map of a haunted place together so students can visualize the creepy setting that will help them dive into writing.  

In every workshop class we start with brainstorming exercises, then students write fiction or poetry for twenty-five minutes.  

Afterwards, anyone can volunteer to read her writing out loud. 

Everyone in the workshop will say what they like about the story and/or recall details they remember about the writing. 

Classes Exercises:
1) A stranger comes to town
2) The discovery of important lore that drives a curse, or a blessing.
3) Something happens--contact is made with a paranormal creature. 
4) Reversals & Recognitions: someone or something is not what it seems!
5) Run for your lives---if you can! Your main character attempts to escape the setting, but circumstances make for life-and-death difficulties. 

The class is so much fun students won’t even realize they are learning to create sustained works of fiction at a more sophisticated level of thought, organization, and writing skill level than ever before.  Many kids have so much fun they are eager to keep writing even after the workshop is over.  Try the next course in this series: City of Doom - https://outschool.com/classes/526ae6e2-9937-4d54-b751-d6d0c3dc6270?sectionUid=d25ff63a-3458-4e9e-9d33-99ce9c25544c&showDetails=true#usVrGbvrE4
Learning Goals
As the class goes on students will get practice in:
Organizing their thoughts with pre-writing exercises
Reading their work out loud
learning goal

Syllabus

Curriculum
Follows Teacher-Created Curriculum
Standards
Aligned with Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
8 Lessons
over 8 Weeks
Lesson 1:
Setting, Characters, & World Building
 Learners brainstorm elements of their world and story as we discuss the role of these craft elements. 
50 mins online live lesson
Lesson 2:
Inciting incident!
 After tweaking their world elements, learners launch into their story while we learn how an inciting incident kicks off the action. 
50 mins online live lesson
Lesson 3:
Cause & Effect: Newton's Cradle
 Lesson in building an action arc: when one event occurs the reactions and consequences begin to build the story. 
50 mins online live lesson
Lesson 4:
Character Moves
 How will the trials and tests experienced change characters, grow characters, or break characters? We'll discuss character arcs. 
50 mins online live lesson

Other Details

Learning Needs
Many students who have mild ADD or ADHD and who are on the mild end of the spectrum enjoy experiencing successful interactions with peers because of a stable weekly format that nevertheless affords creative freedom.
Parental Guidance
We stay on the happier side of Halloween. Stories are more gothic in nature than they are horrific. Though some students write horror, the workshop emphasis is on gothic suspense, secrets, and rich character/world building.
Pre-Requisites
Students should not struggle writing sentences and be able to focus on a task for twenty minutes--or desire to focus for that length of time.
Joined May, 2020
4.8
228reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
I've taught writing workshops for children and teens since 1992.  This type of workshop format is tried and true. I consistently see student's writing improve over the course of the workshop.  Kids who don't write well by hand, who don't spell--who struggle to read their own writing, much less read it out loud--are motivated with all the freedom they have to work and create exciting stories.  With fun writing time--and usually that's almost all it is: time spent writing + fun--problems shake out of sentences until the child is writing fluid paragraphs and can read their work to others with confidence. 

Reviews

Live Group Class
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$165

for 8 classes
1x per week, 8 weeks
50 min

Completed by 9 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 10-13
3-11 learners per class

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