“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Do you know the essential elements of your chosen genre?

Do you know where and when these essential genre elements must occur in your manuscript?

Do you know how to “plant” these essential genre elements for best dramatic effect?

What tropes dominate your chosen genre?

Wizards, elves, dragons, and trolls—this is certainly the stuff of fantasy, populating the fictions of such giants as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, no less than the juvenilia of many aspiring writers.

Werewolves, vampires, and fey are popular now both in literature and TV. Do you know how these stories came to be so popular for so long?

Witches, wizards, and magic have also come a long way over the years, culminating with the mainstream bestseller A Discovery of Witches by Diana Harkness.

Angels, demons, and demigods are making headway in the bestseller scene with books like the mainstream bestseller Angelology by Danielle Trussoni.

Dragons, cyclops, and prophecies weave their way to the bestseller list and to HBO television with George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series.

“They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to Middle Earth. ” ~ George R.R. Martin

What makes these books in particular so popular they transcend genre to the mainstream literary bookshelves?

In this class, we’ll explore the elements of Speculative and Paranormal fiction, both genre tropes and cliches and how we can best utilize them for our stories. We’ll also look at the emerging and very popular female protagonist and how she fits into the best-selling world of Speculative and Paranormal fiction. Then we’ll put these elements together in our stories and look at today’s markets. We’ll have guest speakers, contests, and prizes as well.

REGISTER for the next class Sept 20 at SavvyAuthors.com