Writing the Mythic Dark: A Gothic Storytelling Workshop

Many of us are drawn irrevocably to the Gothic, a tradition that combines both beauty and terror. For some of us who love to read and watch stories in this genre, we feel called to create our own visions of beautiful darkness. To bring these tales to the surface, we will ground ourselves in the origins and prominent voices of Gothic literature before diving into the bones of the Gothic story, examining the most evocative locations and atmospheres, the symbolic objects laden with the weight of memory, and the monsters whose wounded pasts affect the way they reveal themselves in the present.
Inspired by the work of Guillermo del Toro in films like The Devil’s Backbone and Crimson Peak, we will learn how to create a story where the setting lives and breathes, the objects speak, and the monsters both terrify and provoke empathy. We will also cover elements of craft—point of view, tense, color palette, and the storytelling philosophy of Edgar Allan Poe—that will help you craft the architecture of your tale. You’ll leave class with a copy of The Cabinet of Curiosities, which includes the frameworks, key references, and prompts that you can return to after our time concludes.