Building A New World

My first foray into teaching worldbuilding went so well I'm doing it again — only more so. This Saturday (November 6) the Pioneer Valley Writers Workshop is offering the first of a two-part online course I'm teaching. It's called "Building the Iceberg," and is all about science fiction worldbuilding.

In session 1 we'll be looking at the role of alien beings and societies in SF, and creating a worked example. Session 2, on November 13, will delve into the physical details of planets and star systems. 

This is an especially appropriate moment to offer this course again, as right now everybody's talking about Frank Herbert's Dune and Denis Villeneuve's magnificent film adaptation. Herbert's novel is acknowledged as a masterpiece of worldbuilding, and Villeneuve's film shows how to do it in cinema.

So come look under the hood with me and let's build a world!