Transform Your Worldbuilding Notes into a Novel

About this course

It’s time to take your world maps, historical records, family trees, and constellations and invite readers into the fantasy space you’ve created. In this class, we’ll organize worldbuilding notes, identify places for rich exploration, articulate specific characters, and start the story!

You'll get a new class every Friday at noon Pacific for six weeks, focused on one aspect of transforming your notes into a novel.

In the first week, you’ll learn how to introduce readers to your world through the opening of a novel without losing their narrative interest. We’ll learn to take complex political systems and magical principles and identify how they affect character to introduce readers to these concepts.

We’ll look at examples from N. K. Jemisin, Sarah J. Maas, Nnedi Okorafor, and Caitlin Starling to see how to start complicated projects with character-driven scenes.

Then, we'll keep the novel moving with activated secondary characters, richly imagined power structures, and fully fleshed-out settings. Instead of sacrificing the complexity of your created worlds, overcome overwhelm by focusing on characters and sustaining a writing practice.

At the end of the six weeks, you'll submit your first chapter and be matched with another student to exchange beta reading and give feedback.

Once you've had a chance to review and incorporate any feedback, you'll meet live with your classmates to read your first chapters and give final feedback before planning the next steps.

When you take this class, you:

• Can watch lessons whenever you want, as many times as you want.
• Have access to a dedicated Discord channel to discuss lessons and your work.
• Can meet with Marcella live midway through the course to address any questions.
• Will be matched with another writer to read and support each other's work

The goal of this class is for you to walk away with a completed draft of your first pages or chapter, the momentum to keep going, and a writing buddy or feedback partner!

Important Class Dates:

January 19 - Class starts! Make sure you have permitted Teachable to send you emails, as all class reminders will come from Teachable.

January 19 - February 23: One lecture per week on Friday available by noon Pacific

February 9 - Live Office Hours: Meet with Marcella Haddad 4-5 pm Pacific Time (Zoom) Will be recorded.

February 23 - First Chapter Due

March 1 - Group meeting to share work and meet critique partners 4-6 pm Pacific (Zoom)

March 15 - Final feedback due (Email Exchange)

Our Refund Policy:

Clarion West will refund all class fees if the request is made 30 days before class starts. Any exceptions are subject to approval by our workshop staff.