Write Like You’re Living in a Better World: Creative Writing as a Means for Building the Societies We Wish to See

Abstract

Abstract The following article explores a proposed educational programme premised on writing for utopias. Specifically, through facilitated dialogue, participants would collectively engage in creative writing as a mechanism for envisioning alternative futures grown out of divergent political ideologies or social norms to those they experience today. Participants are encouraged to question their current mentality, reflect on why society operates as it does today, and consider what changes they would want to bear witness to. The contribution outlines core concepts for the programme, whilst offering a sample twelve-session guide with suggestions on how to adapt it based on previous knowledge or the participants' ambitions. The ambition of such an undertaking is that students are supported - and support each other - to break with traditional formulaic tasks and, instead, develop their creativity and vision. Their works then serve as a starting point for further tasks predicated on critical dialogue over why they hold particular beliefs, rely on their stated visions to be utopian, and, ultimately, what steps are required to build towards the society they wish to see. The premise is non-prescriptive to enable writers to take their narratives in whichever directions they see fit - for example, whilst science fiction permits us to consider far flung futures, and fantasy enables perspectives to emerge from any source (flora, fauna, or otherwise), historical fiction enables us to revisit significant moments in time to ask what could have been had different choices been made. Throughout the submission, several literary and cinematic fiction examples are drawn upon to help demonstrate the relevant points.