In this class we will explore the most popular types of violence in fiction and work on bringing together elements of horror, crime, and a plethora of other genres while learning to use violence as a tool to improve storytelling. We will look at some of the most common violence types in contemporary fiction—phsyical, emotional, and sexual—and explore their do, don’ts, and grey areas in between. We will also explore the role of empathy in violent narratives, which means we’ll discuss positionality, Otherness, physicality, and other core elements of great character development. We will talk about the explosive, messy nature of violence and how to pace it to serve our writing while also looking at the role of language and studying the violence formula and our power—and need—to subvert it.
