Self Guided

Writing Beyond the Known: Exploring the Possible through Speculative Nonfiction

April 18 - May 13; Enrollment is OPEN through May 6th

Learn to use a variety of techniques to map the territories of inner worlds and the possibilities of the world we share.

Additional Information

In this course, you will celebrate the elastic quality of the essay form. You will explore how metaphor, speculation, and imaginative play can enliven your writing, help you examine your values, fascinations, imaginings, and capture the slippery quality of the individual writer’s passage through time and the sometimes surreal quality of existence.  Students will experiment with techniques such as unexpected figurative language; associative memory; leaps across time; combining genres and mediums; and the writing of daydreams, fantasies, dreams, and imaginings. As we proceed, our interest will be not in misrepresenting the true events of the past, but in using a variety of techniques to map the territories of inner worlds and the possibilities of the world we share.

Each week provides:

  • PROMPTS to help you generate new writing
  • INSPIRATION in the form of written lectures and a selection of readings

After the course closes: you will receive a zip file containing all of the work you developed during the month. You’ll also continue to be a member of our Creative Nonfiction Writing Classes’ Community Page. With this free membership, you will be able to share writings and calls for submissions, recommend books, and stay connected with other writers.

Course Schedule

Week 1 - GROUNDING YOURSELF TO THINK BEYOND

Investigate how to use the present as a jumping-off point into examining your values, fears, and ideals. Readings and writing exercises will guide you in thinking about how you might move from the concrete to the abstract in a piece of writing— for example, from the sensory realities of the now to imagined futures, or from the details of the actual to what is possible.

WEEK 2 - Beyond Genre, Beyond the Familiar

Get your creativity flowing by experimenting with genre boundaries and unconventional forms, such as letters, diaries, dream journals, commonplace books, collages, and graphic memoir.  This week, we’ll think about how these approaches can help you access new angles on the material of your life, world, and mind. We will also explore ways to “estrange the familiar” in order to give personal narratives new, compelling power (both for yourself and for the reader).

WEEK 3 - Nonfiction and Imagined Worlds

Examine work by writers exploring the utopian and dystopian possibilities of the past, present, and future. You’ll also begin examining your own hopes and values and speculating about the world you want to see in your lifetime. This week will be a time to explore how writing can sustain our values and keep alive individual and communal ideals.

WEEK 4 - The “Beyond” of Myths, Tales, and the Subconscious

Set out into your own dreams, imaginings, and speculations. You’ll be invited to use dreams as seeds of writing; to delve into the subconscious with creative meditation techniques; and to craft your own narratives in relation to pre-existing cultural material such as fairy tales and myths.

View Complete Syllabus

Course Registration

$29.99

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Please Note

It is not uncommon for classes to fill up before the end of early registration, particularly in the last few days before the deadline. If you know for certain that you wish to take a particular class, we recommend registering early. If you'd like to be added to a waitlist for a sold-out class, please email our director of education, Sharla Yates, at [email protected].

Hear from our Students

Creative Nonfiction’s online writing classes have helped more than 3,000 writers tell their stories better.

Read Success Stories

Testimonials

I enjoyed reading other peoples work and getting feedback about my own work– the handouts/video links and class lessons were also very informative and relevantly paced to the give structural guidelines.

Catherine O’Neill