Using Language to Build Your Fantasy World with Walt Boyes
Admission
- $25.00 - Supporting Tuition
- $15.00 - Helping Hands
- $5.00 - Helping Hands Extended
Description
It wasn't Tolkien's description or his characters that made the Lord of the Rings believable. It was the background of the names and languages in the stories. They made it possible to differentiate peoples and characters, to understand differences between peoples and nations, and to keep people's interest to this day.
One of the most convincing ways to enmesh your readers in your fantasy world is the coherence of the languages of your world.
In this class, we will look at some basic rules for language building as part of coherent world-building in fantasy. We will examine what makes languages work and what elements can kick the readers out of the story. This class is most appropriate for beginning to intermediate writers of fantasy.
This class meets once for an hour in webinar format. Video/microphones are not required to participate. No preparation is required for this class.
About the Instructor:
Walt Boyes is a journalist, analyst, and recognized authority on 21st-century manufacturing and automation. He is a Fellow of several scientific organizations in the US and the UK and a member of the Association of Professional Futurists. He writes a monthly newsletter on automation and process control. He also writes science fiction, fantasy, and alternate history. He was the editor of the Grantville Gazette and Co-Editor in Chief of Ring of Fire Press with Joy Ward, to whom Walt is lucky to be married. In 2022, Walt and Joy joined Untreed Reads Publishing as the acquisition editors of their new SFF/AltHist book imprint, To Pay It Forward. Walt has been a Director of The Heinlein Society for several years.
This event will be held in Zoom. By registering for this class, you agree to follow the Clarion West Code of Conduct and Zoom policies.
About Our Community Classes:
Community classes are offered at an extreme discount and with additional sliding scale options to enable access to high quality writing instruction, regardless of your economic circumstance. Please choose the ticketing option that best supports your circumstances.
Limited Free Seating:
We offer a percentage of seats in every class to People of the Global Majority (Asian, Black, African, Latina/o/x, Middle Eastern, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, and/or have been racialized as 'ethnic minorities') for free, regardless of financial need.
Eligible folks should complete this form to enter the lottery for free seats. If a seat is available, we will email you 7-10 days before the class begins. For more information, see our equity and inclusion policies.
Our Refund Policy:
Clarion West will refund all class fees if the request is made 30 days before the class date. Refund requests made within 30 days of the class will be honored if we can fill the seat. Any exceptions are subject to approval by our workshop staff.