Science Fiction / Fantasy Writing Program

While I usually write reviews or fiction, sometimes I try to do a little bit of something extra.  Part of writing is thinking outside the box, and Odin knows the only box I've ever been able to think inside of is a 1950s police box.  Add this to the fact that I tend to obsess over minor details and feel compelled to create lists several times a day, and it's only natural that eventually these things will start to overlap.

For some reason, people have been telling me ever since I was a high school student that it was virtually impossible to double minor as an undergraduate in college.  Naturally, I took this as a challenge, and the only surprising thing that I faced when writing this was that...it was so easy.

Of course, that doesn't explain why I came up with a course plan for a major and a double minor.  The premise is simple: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Program.  The idea is that anybody who completes this course program will have received instruction in creative writing - specifically, fiction writing - as well as taking in enough knowledge to write stories about speculative fiction and fantasy.  

While there are a lot of routes to take to get here, I felt that the most universal choices for this were Physics and Religious Studies.  While there are a lot of types of science used in Science Fiction, but while speculative biology (for example) is more imaginative, physics is more likely to be utilized in a serious manner.  Religious Studies, on the other hand, assists in forming the mindset of most Fantasy characters.  Most Fantasy settings either make use of real or fictional religions, and even if you choose not to go this route, the concepts behind various religions are filled with fuel for believable myths and legends.  The electives were chosen in much this same way.  Interaction between different characters and different cultures is an integral part to writing Fiction - as is, of course, the ability to write it into a script.

The courses here were chosen using the Catalogue for Western Connecticut State University, the university right down the street from my house.  This catalogue changes from year to year, and will differ drastically from college to college.  However, WestConn was still effective for this thought exercise and this can definitely serve as a model for anybody who wishes to implement this idea into their own studies.