CRW 3110 Spring 2025 - Biagi

This is an introductory workshop course exploring the craft of fiction via the lens of worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is defined as the creative process of constructing an imaginary world or universe. While it is often considered most applicable to fantastical or speculative writing, it in fact serves as an essential element to any piece of fiction, given that every fiction writer—realist or speculative—must actively determine the details of the lives and worlds in which their characters exist. In this class, we will explore six distinct units: “Character as World,” “Worlds of Privilege and Power,” “Setting-Rich Worlds,” “Psychological Worlds,” “Strangely Familiar Worlds,” and “Strangely Strange Worlds.” We will discuss how craft techniques such as character, plot, setting, point of view, and diction help us world build, and we will discuss, in turn, how worldbuilding helps us enhance those craft elements. Our reading will include wide-ranging and diverse writers of realist and speculative fiction, as well as craft texts that illuminate the units and craft techniques under discussion. We will write and workshop two longer pieces of fiction, one of which will be revised at the end of the semester, as well as engage in regular generative exercises building up to these longer pieces. We will also discuss and build our own class document of fiction craft terms and writing tips to guide us as we read and analyze published work and the work of our class