WRIT 340 Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
This course focuses on the craft of writing science fiction and fantasy. Through guided exercises, students gain skills in identifying and creating essential elements common to these popular genres, such as tropes, leitmotifs, character types, and narrative arcs. Additionally, students study major sci-fi and fantasy subgenres to discover how movements such as Afrofuturism or Disabled Futurism harness the genres¿ power to radically reimagine marginalized histories and futures. The exercises in this course directly focus on the writer¿s career, including applications such as the story synopses and outlines, adaptations of story ideas for movies and games, as well as query letters for publication.
Prerequisites
4 Undergraduate credits
Effective January 1, 2026 to present
Learning outcomes
General
- Differentiate between popular sci-fi and fantasy subgenres such as Afrofuturism, Crip Futurity, indigenous futurisms, apocalyptic and dystopian forms, cyberpunk, urban fantasy, grimdark, magical realism, epic, and more.
- Apply the writerly processes that successful science fiction and fantasy authors use to develop narrative structures.
- Apply common science fiction and fantasy story tropes and leitmotifs effectively within a variety of narrative structures.
- Analyze the role of science fiction and fantasy in exploring contemporary issues such as environmental catastrophe, racism, sexism, ableism, inequality, and authoritarianism.
- Create original science fiction or fantasy story arcs for a variety of genres such as novels, movies, games, short stories, or series.