How to write Hard science fiction with poetic beauty

Name: How to write Hard science fiction with poetic beauty
Rating: 4.3 (19 reviews)

Learn to write Hard SF based on the work of Arthur C Clarke

Created byDamien Walter

Last updated 5/2022

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Learn how to generate ideas
Core creative strategies
Writing with symbolism
The tools of metaphor

Course content

1 section • 5 lectures • 53m total length

Course Introduction1:39
Learn to write hard science fiction with poetic beauty, using allegory, symbolism, and metaphor, inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise.
Writing Hard SF9:13
Hard science fiction begins in system one and system two—logic and imagination—then extrapolates near-future science into mythic, symbolic stories with space suits, colonies, and terraforming.
Generating ideas for Hard SF9:33
Generate ideas for hard science fiction by blending origination, research, incubation, and formation with symbolic imagination, fascination, and eureka moments to craft scientifically grounded narratives.
The Hard SF writer's toolkit - Part One16:43
Discover how hard science fiction uses poetic tools to transform characters through tower-to-space concepts, blending logic with imagination. Employ novum, cognitive estrangement, metaphor, and symbol to craft structured, engaging narratives.
The Hard SF writer's toolkit - Part Two16:14
Explore subtext, allegory, myth, and symbolism in hard science fiction. Build a space tower story that probes human progress, emotion, and science versus religion.

Requirements

Passion for science fiction

Description

An advanced level workshop in writing Hard SF with the tools of metaphor and symbolism.

Taught by Damien Walter, host of the Science Fiction podcast and writers for the Guardian, BBC, Wired.

Hard SF begins in the realm of pure logic, extrapolating scientific ideas into credible near futures. But the greatest Hard SF by writers like Arthur C Clarke, Ursula Le Guin and William Gibson weaves stories of poetic beauty.

What makes a great Hard SF story?

The factor that raises a classic SF novel like The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke up to greatness isn't the tech, the concepts or even the science.

It's the poetry.

A condensed workshop in the poetic tools of metaphor, symbolism, allegory and more for writers of Hard SF.

Follow the full course in Advanced Scifi & Fantasy

Advanced techniques for writers of Science Fiction & Fantasy, used by today’s most successful storytellers and myth makers.

Learn the techniques of today’s top scifi & fantasy storytellers

Eternal Questions – tell stories that ask – and answer – the deep questions of human life and experience.

The Novum – the secret storytelling tool of Stanley Kubrick and other great scifi myth makers.

Cognitive Science – dig into the cogsci of scifi, how our brain and psychology are shaped by mythic stories.

Beyond The Hero’s Journey – Joseph Campbell’s essential guide to mythic storytelling…and how to go beyond it.

Archetypes – work with the archetypal human personality types – shadow, anima, trickster – discovered by Carl Jung.

Metanarratives – how to tell stories that cross between multiple movies, books, games and comics, and form the multi-billion dollar MARVEL franchise.

Ergodic Storytelling – use fascinating and cryptic secondary material – maps, invented texts and illustrations – to help immerse the audience in your world.

Damien Walter writes on technology, culture and science fiction for The Guardian, BBC, Independent, Wired, Buzzfeed, SFX and Aeon. He teaches The Rhetoric of Story & Writing the 21st Century Myth to over 35,000 students worldwide.

Who this course is for:

Writers