Help Me Teach Teens to Write Sci-Fi & Fantasy

November 5, 2015 9:44 AM

I've been invited to give a series of workshops at a local high school on writing science fiction and fantasy. What should I do to make them awesome?

I'm an experienced writer and editor, but I'm slightly terrified of teenagers. Any advice on keeping high school students engaged would be helpful. Specific advice on teaching writing is welcome too.

I'll be teaching groups of students in grades 10-12 (probably 20-30 at a time). Each workshop will last about an hour.

posted by Prunesquallor to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

How frequent are these workshops?
posted by FallowKing at 9:51 AM on November 5, 2015

Make a course book consisting of famous SHORT short stories, where the classic architecture of SF / F narrative construction is made most explicit and the sheer weight of the work they need to do to emulate it is most superficial manageable.

(The classic architecture being the nested-doll dual mysteries being simultaneously revealed -- the mystery of the SFnal setting which the characters know but the reader only gradually discovers over the first and maybe second act, and the mystery the of the conflict and/or its means of resolution which the characters themselves discover over the first and second acts and put into effect in the third.)
posted by MattD at 10:01 AM on November 5, 2015

I think Jeff VanderMeer has been involved in an SFF writing camp for teens for many years, and it seems likely that experience informed Wonderbook (link goes to its web extras). You might check it for ideas.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:19 AM on November 5, 2015

I would consider watching this series of lectures by SF author Dan Wells. Part of what he does that makes the lecture enjoyable is weave in lots of examples from things that young people would know (especially Harry Potter). So my recommendation is that whatever you talk about, give lots of practical examples from good YA lit.
posted by bove at 10:36 AM on November 5, 2015

Response by poster: FallowKing: It's a one-off thing (I shouldn't have said 'series'). I'll be teaching a single one-hour workshop to several different groups over the course of one day.
posted by Prunesquallor at 10:51 AM on November 5, 2015

It doesn't sound like you have time to do more than introduce the subject and suggest resources. You may want to emphasize the prewriting involved in writing - freewriting, brainstorming, clustering, and informal outlines. The Purdue OWL website is a great resource, and you could assemble a list of online writing resources and a suggested sci fi reading list to distribute during your workshop.
posted by Little Dawn at 11:01 AM on November 5, 2015

Take a look at Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by David Gerrald. I read this book in high school and found it very helpful. It has a practical try this approach that might be inspirational for you.
posted by ellerhodes at 8:11 PM on November 5, 2015

Classic SF can be offputting to a modern thinker. Although SF challenges the fundamental underpinnings of the industrialized Western world-view, many writers did not challenge their own belief in the superiority of the white male.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg's blog covers "skiffy rom" or "SFR, FUTURISTIC, OR PARANORMAL ROMANCES IN WHICH AT LEAST ONE PROTAGONIST IS AN ALIEN, OR OF ALIEN ANCESTRY." The Writing Craft Posts are very useful.

'Weave multiple levels of conflict without expository lumps,' is the fundamental challenge.
posted by ohshenandoah at 9:14 AM on November 8, 2015