Writing Sci Fi & Fantasy
We are really looking forward to welcoming you to ‘Writing Sci Fi and Fantasy’ with Tara Loder.
She will help you craft irresistible opening chapters, define a strong plot, create characters your readers can fall in love with and teach you how to pitch your novel when you are ready to submit.
You'll delve into tropes of the sci fi and fantasy genres, and learn what to keep at the heart of your novel, so that agents and publishers know what your book is, where to place it in the market and why that’s so important in pitching and getting your book published.
By the end of course you’ll have 3k polished words shaped by an experienced commissioning editor.
JOINING INFO
The key details of the course are below, as well as the link you’ll need to join each class..
When: Monday 22nd September - 27th October, 7:00pm-8:30pm (UK Time)
Where: Online
Joining Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/394017718392?p=fMJS2Ab3Zj4xfxbMYh
You can download Teams free on your computer, or join via the web: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ww/microsoft-teams/download-app
PREP
Before class starts students will submit 200 words of your novel, synopsis or idea, so the class can be tailored to your interests. You'll need to submit this one week before the course start date (15th September) so Tara has time to read these ahead of the course beginning.
Please submit this to [email protected]
BOOK BUNDLE
As part of your course fee you are entitled to a book bundle which includes the Writers & Artists Yearbook 2026 and two books from Bloomsbury!
Please reply to this email with your address, and the two books you would like to select. You can find the available selection at the following link: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/fiction/fantasy-mythology-sci-fi/. Please ensure you select paperbacks that are under the £9 mark. Please send me your address and your choices by Monday 22nd September, and we will get your books in the post!
SLACK
Finally, we will be using Slack during the course, which is a free, easy-to-use platform that enables everything related to the course to be stored in one place. Please click on the below link to gain access to the Slack workspace that we’ve created for this course:
https://join.slack.com/t/writingscifia-aeg8972/shared_invite/zt-3d0sv0ems-oU_aSUNJKUdAGr0zEVofpA
When you arrive in Slack you’ll see the workspace is called ‘Writing Sci Fi and Fantasy’, with several channels within that workspace. A quick bit of guidance on how these different channels will work:
- Course Etiquette: We’ve put together some course etiquette guidelines. Please have a read and comment to confirm that you’ve seen them.
- Social: This is a general discussion board. Tara, James and myself will all have access but it’s not something we’re going to get involved in. This is for you guys to chat amongst yourselves, discuss, share advice and book recommendations! A great way to start would be to introduce yourselves, share info about your writing journeys so far and let the rest of the group know what you’re working on and why you’re here.
- Writing Course: We will be sharing the homework in here each week for your reference, as well as recordings of every class.
Everyone involved in the course will have access to all channels by default. It’s therefore important to make Slack work for you, so please take a bit of time to manage your notifications. You can do this by right-clicking on the channel and then selecting ‘Change notifications’.
Myself and James will also be available via email so if you’d prefer to reach out to us via email then please do get in touch.
