Join The Imaginarium and Francesco Sarti in another creative writing course designed for writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy. This year Francesco is getting down into the details of monsters, villains, world building and flash fiction in four 90-minute sessions. Designed to give you the tips and tools to carry your writing forward, you can attend all four sessions for £50 (saving yourself £10) or pick and choose the sessions you wish to attend at £15 per session.
Dates:
17th May (4:30-6pm)- Writing Monsters: Creatures That Terrify, Seduce, and Reveal
24th May (4:30-6pm)- How to write Villains
7th June (4:30-6pm)- World Building
14th June (4:30-6pm)- Flash Fiction
All hosted at the Imaginarium, 10 Angel Courtyard, Lymington, SO419AP.
The details of each session are below:
Writing Monsters: Creatures That Terrify, Seduce, and Reveal
Sunday 17th May 4:30-6pm at The Imaginarium.
A 90‑minute workshop for writers of fantasy, horror, and the uncanny.
Monsters are never just monsters. They are boundary‑breakers, shadows, and living metaphors; creatures born from the fears, desires, and cultural tensions we’d rather not name. This workshop invites you to stop treating monsters as set dressing and start writing them as the beating heart of your story.
We’ll explore how monsters emerge from psychological pressure, ecological imagination, and the stories societies tell to preserve their taboos. You’ll learn how to design creatures that feel inevitable rather than arbitrary, beings whose bodies, behaviours, and mythologies reveal the truth behind your characters and their worlds.
Expect a blend of insight and hands‑on creation.
You’ll leave with one fully sketched monster and a toolkit for creating many more. Whether you write epic fantasy, cosmic horror, dark folklore, or something stranger, this workshop will deepen your craft and sharpen your imagination.
How to write Villains
Sunday 24th May, 4:30-6pm at The Imaginarium.
This 90‑minute workshop invites writers to step into the shadowed territory where antagonists stop being clichés and start becoming disturbingly human.
Writers will explore how every villain carries a private instruction manual for how the world works; a manual shaped by early fractures, defence mechanisms, and the desperate need to feel safe, loved, or simply intact. By tracing that inner logic, you’ll learn to craft antagonists whose darkness is rooted in psychological truth rather than trope.
Across this session, we’ll examine the evolution of the villain from myth to cinema, map shadow archetypes, and study how trauma, shame, and self‑sabotage can become narrative engines. We’ll look at the villain as the protagonist’s distorted mirror, and we’ll explore the ethics of writing evil: how to portray harm without flattening it, and how to make readers feel the unsettling pull of dark empathy.
By the end, you’ll know how to build antagonists who are complex, contradictory, and frighteningly alive.
Worldbuilding Workshop
Sunday 7th June, 4:30-6pm at The Imaginarium.
Enrich your stories with daring worldbuilding in this workshop led by award-winning author Francesco Sarti. He will guide you through the first idea sparks to the intricacies of worldbuilding, making even the most imaginative details integral to your story. Prepare to put pen to paper as we dive into stimulating exercises and see stories you thought you were familiar with under a completely new light. Suitable for both beginners and experienced writers, the aim of this workshop is to get you to go home with an outline for a fantasy or sci-fi story and a cohesive imaginary world to play with. Francesco has published poetry and short fiction in Italy, and is represented by Kate Nash Literary Agency in the U.K. He is currently working on his first sci-fi novel.
Flash Fiction Workshop
Sunday 14th June, 4:30-6pm at The Imaginarium.
Can you write a complete SFF story in under 200 words? One with a clear beginning, middle, and end, layered with conflict, multiple plot threads, worldbuilding and vivid character development? In just 20 sentences, we’ll build a rich and original narrative you can read “cover to cover” while the kettle boils.
Bio
Francesco is an experienced author of poetry, short fiction and novels, published in both Italian and English. He is represented by Justin Nash from Kate Nash Literary Agency, and with him he's working on his debut novel.
He greatly enjoys public speaking, and has been running creative writing workshops for almost 3 years at festivals and in collaboration with independent bookshops.
He has recently launched an online writing school called Write Your Way, where he organises paid and free workshops, both run by himself and by popular authors.