Week One: Place and time are incredibly important aspects of a story's opening pages because they tell us the physical location and year/era the story takes place. Would might a story be different if it was set in an alternate country (like England, US, or Australia)? What if the story took place 50 years ago? Or 50 years in the future? 

Week Two: Setting is such an important part of any series. Would magical books be as popular if we didn't dream of attending schools with the moving staircases, cozy common rooms, and bewitched dining areas? I will discuss locations and descriptions to help the student determine how settings impact an overall story.                                         

Week Three: The protagonist is the main character. Stories generally only have one main character who is often featured in a story's title. 

Week Four: The antagonist is the main villain. I will talk about major villains that a hero combats in every single story. Students are also encouraged to consider other minor characters who antagonize the heroes, like minor bullies and annoying professors. 
                 
Week Five: Secondary characters are not less important than main characters! How boring would a story be without friends who make us laugh with their jokes and pranks? Students will be encourage to consider how important other characters can be to the overall story. Some characters may have minor roles early in the students' writing but become incredibly more important as the story progresses. 

Week Six: Dialogue. Students will look at some examples of dialogue to review proper construction of dialogue sentences. We will also examine how dialogue is used to move plot forward through a story.                                                       

Week Seven: Passive voice. Students should write in active voice as much as possible. They will read examples of both active and passive voice. They will learn to rewrite passive sentences in active voice so that the character performs the action in the sentence.                                 

Week Eight: Showing vs. telling. Similar to the previous week, students will read examples of both showing and telling. They will work to rewrite telling words and sentences to show the characters' action and emotions more clearly.                              

Week Nine: Foreshadowing. Our last week talks about dropping hints early in books and having that information come true later in the story or series in a BIG way! We will discuss how to foretell what is going to happen in a story without giving the surprise away. We will talk about how important those clues are and how disappointing a story might be without them.                                        

I have an MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults. I love talking about all forms of writing! I am especially excited to share my love and passion for magical stories to all readers and future writers. Fantasy stories include such immersive worlds and are so much fun to escape into. They also have a lot to teach us about our writing, whether it is fantasy or not. I hope to pass on some enthusiasm for writing to my students! My goal for the end of this course is that they will come away with a respect, if not outright love, for writing and the fantasy genre.

숙제 제공
Each week, I assign a short writing assignment focused around that week's theme and ask the students to share their paragraphs in the classroom (so other students may view, comment, and interact as well). I also ask students to submit their own creative writing. I will critique submitted work based on an overall view of that week's theme along with some minor spelling and grammar as needed. 
수업 외 주당 1 - 2 시간
제공되는 평가
The more assignments that students post and the more creative writing that they share helps me to understand their knowledge and comprehension of the topics we are discussing.
제공되는 성적

While not necessary, it will be helpful if the students have some knowledge of magical characters like Gandalf, Merlin, Dr. Strange, Wanda, Yoda, and other wizards from magic books series.