Fall Writer’s Club
How do you write a fantasy story? Over 7 weeks, Pilco writers will explore how to create a fantasy world that feels strange, believable, and entirely their own.
We will create characters, places, rules, lore, conflicts, and stories within the larger world. And along the way, writers will develop their descriptive writing, sentence structure, storytelling, and individual writing skills.
Quote about Child
Week 3
This week, we went deeper into our fantasy worlds by creating lore - the stories, beliefs, and events that give a world its history and make it feel alive. Writers created a story within their story, developing a clear sequence of events with a problem, conflict, and resolution.
We also had one-on-one coaching time, allowing us to focus on each writer’s individual skills and give them targeted guidance for their next step.
Week 2
This week, we take inspiration from Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, and moved beyond simply describing our fantasy worlds and began thinking about how those places work.
Writers observed an ordinary scene and looked closely for what might be strange, unusual, or unexpected. They also created a place in their own world where creatures gather, thinking about why they go there and what happens there.
We focused on expanding ideas with reasons and rules, using more complex sentences to show not just what exists in a world, but why it is that way and how it works.
Week 1
We’re beginning a new 7-week season of Fantasy Writing - exploring how writers can invent characters, build imaginary worlds, and turn ideas into stories.
This week we took inspiration from Edward Gorey’s The Utter Zoo. Children chose one of Gorey’s wonderfully unusual creatures and imagine where it lived — drawing its landscape, structures, roads, and hidden details before their writing.
We also practised an important writing tool: adding a thought to an idea. Rather than simply naming what exists in a world, we’ll explore how a writer can add an unexpected thought that makes it feel alive.
