The Gothic and Horror Genre Writing Workshop

Course Overview

In this four-week workshop, you'll gain the knowledge, skills, and tools you need for writing scary stories that whet the most insatiable appetite for horror by tracing the grisly birth of the most popular genre to its Gothic origins.

  • Learn how to chill readers to their core with hair-raising techniques, terrifying atmospheres, and nerve-wracking twists with featured classics from Edgar Allan Poe to contemporary masters Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.

  • Elevate your prose to strike fear in the hearts of your audience through the petrifying perspectives of successful film directors Alfred Hitchcock and the Cohen brothers.

  • Polish your writing with detailed feedback from the instructor Jacquelyn Rodriguez, and write terrifying tales of horror that'll leave your readers craving more!

What You’ll Learn

  1. How to discover a purpose for writing and avoid writer’s block by distinguishing between key features of the Gothic genre and its various subtypes

  2. How to grow an audience by writing prose that achieves certain effects and elicits desired responses from an audience

  3. How to use a Gothic writing style with startling precision for atmospheric intensity

  4. How to craft compelling characters motivated by fear with psychological and emotional complexity

  5. How to heighten suspense with mind-bending twists and turns by manipulating key elements of fiction

Your Outcome

You'll submit (3) pieces of writing for peer review and instructor feedback.

By the end of the course, you'll have the ability to produce writing polished to professional standards and ready for publication.

Course Outline

Session #1: Grim Beginnings

Focuses on the principles and aspects of narrative design--plot structure, genre conventions, thematic development, and narrative forms.

Session #2: Frightening Fiction

Focuses on using psychology for complex characterization with internal/external conflicts; primordial urges shared by every human; how fear is motivating, and; creating atmospheric intensity through place-setting.

Session #3: Petrifying Perspectives

Focuses on how to use cinematic techniques in writing; altering perceptions of time and manipulating the reading experience; using narrator reliability and points-of-view as skilled techniques over preference; and when to show or tell (scene vs. summary).

Session #4: RIP (Revising in Progress)

Mood, tone, and voice; style, diction, and syntax; clarity, precision, and cohesion; how to show, not tell; experiment with more advanced literary techniques and rhetorical devices; return to revision; start polishing a work-in-progress.

More Details:

Teacher's Bio: My passion and talent is for helping others master learning and skills. I'm an experienced college writing instructor, practicing writer, and an expert in the literary arts.
Style of Offering: Workshop, discussion, mini-lessons
Max Attendance: 12
Date and Time : Wednesday 8-10pm CST
Signup Deadline: 24 Hours in Advance