Last night we celebrated the end of a really wonderful six weeks with our first cohort of students for the online fantasy course. We did this by hearing from them about their work and what they’ve been inspired to do over the time spent with us. I’m pleased to report that 100% enjoyed the course (elf or above), and over three-quarters rated it as ‘wizard!’ (other options, in descending pleasure were, elf, human, orc and troll!). Over the month and a half, a spirit of fellowship has bloomed, honouring the writer who brought us all together, and many are continuing to meet as modern Inklings in a special group in our online forum.

We had to do some work, of course, as we still had editing, advice on the industry, and the issue of how to pitch your material to cover. This however led to a hilarious game of ‘Guess the Logline’. Have a go at a couple and see if you get them:

In a dark and distant future, a bounty hunter tracks down and eliminates humanoid replicants, causing him to re-examine his own humanity.

Pretty easy to guess, no? That Breakout Room captured the point of a longline which is to encapsulate in one sentence the key feature of a piece. Much shorter than an elevator pitch, it goes to the heart and the best ones include a twist.

But what about this:

A burdened heir sets off to seek advice for managing his problematic, but precious, heirloom, and gathers an unlikely crew.

II requested Room 5 not to make it too obvious, but we got there. I’ll put the answers* at the bottom just in case you didn’t guess.

However, the heart of the evening was spent discussing with Jasmine Richards the serious issues facing publishing at the moment, particularly in the wake of the new awareness of a lack of diversity in storytelling. Our participants happened to come from a range of backgrounds, languages and cultures (much to be celebrated) but if you look at publishing as a whole, it is clear that diversity has only very recently been a concern. With Jasmine, we discussed how and if you tell another’s story, when this is a minority or oppressed one, at this point in history. We also looked at how to handle physical descriptions of characters to tilt away from a white bias. Some of the very practical advice is avoid food (coffee colours, chocolate) for skin tone and find a new way. Pick other features, such as hairstyle or another subtle signal without labouring the point that describes your character.

It’s been an honour to journey with these writers and tutors. Some students are already returning for the next level course, a Novel-in-a-Year, which starts in July. If you already have an idea for a novel and just need the guidance and motivation to write, why not check this out and join us? This end with an optional extension for an in-person week at Merton College (Tolkien’s old college) in August 2022.

If you want to be on the same six-week course as described above, it is returning in October. Details are found here. The same team of tutors are returning so all we need now is the next fellowship to form of writers eager to get inspiration from Oxford fantasy writers.

*Blade Runner/The Fellowship of the Ring

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