Writing Center hosts semester long Gothic style creative writing workshop

The University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Writing Center is hosting a new workshop called Writing The Gothic, which will be offered every Wednesday from Feb. 6 through May 1. The workshop sessions will take place from noon to 12:45 in the Writing Center (SSCB 2.101).

Following the Fantasy World Building workshop that was put on last semester by the Writing Center, co-creators Austin Green, lead consultant for the Writing Center, and Cassandra Waggett, writing consultant, created the creative writing workshop series centered around gothic and horror.

“The Fantasy World Building workshop went really well last semester and we wanted to veer to something genre specific again, but we also wanted to hit a different audience,” Green said. “Maybe for students that think ‘Oh, fantasy may not be what I like, but maybe I like scary stuff. Maybe I like spooky stuff.’”

The Writing Center can be a resource for assignments or personal works. Although the workshop began in early February, there are still upcoming dates with each one having a different purpose.

One of the more recent workshops was The Gothic Setting held on Feb. 27. In this workshop, attendees would discuss the three original gothic settings: the gothic mansion, the gothic wilderness and the urban gothic. After this, the first activity started, where a clip from the film “Crimson Peak” was played and two groups discussed ways of changing the setting while keeping the plot the same. A second activity followed, where a clip from “It Follows” was played and then attendees each wrote the same scenario with one of the three traditional settings.

“The activities we do vary,” Green said. “I mean, we do try to do group activities for every date. Each date also has to have a writing activity.”

When discussing the basic outline for each workshop of the series, Green also began to describe the “low stakes environment” the workshop creates.

“We try to keep everything pretty low stakes,” Green said. “If you don’t want to share your work, that’s totally understandable, but we do hope that you’ll maybe share the process you went through. The focus is on the process, not necessarily the end result.”

Although five of the workshop events have already passed, the March 20 session will be The Gothic Double. Ghosts and Revenge will be on March 27. April 3 will be A Problematic Pattern In The Gothic. On April 10, the workshop will be The Gothic Maze. Gothic Soundscapes will be on April 17. The last day for this workshop, The Gothic Obsession will be on April 24.

“We welcome all students and faculty to Writing The Gothic,” Waggett said. “You don’t have to be a writer. You don’t have to write a novel. You don’t have to be a literature buff who knows all of Edgar Allen Poe’s works. You can come to this space and like some aspects of the gothic and think, ‘Yeah, maybe I’ll try this out.’”

For more information on Writing The Gothic workshop series, contact the Writing Center at 281-283-2910 or writingcenter@uhcl.edu.