Story Thinking and the Real-World Applications of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing

＂Story Thinking brings together ideas from business innovation, psychology, futures studies, medicine and engineering with key principles from SFF storytelling to offer new patterns of thought for improvisation, rapid perspective shifts, worldbuilding, pleasure and playfulness. It shows how the principles of science fiction and fantasy writing can enrich research within universities and various industries. It Alongside these dynamic ideas, the authors provide case studies of their own successful applications of Story Thinking in various fields, including defense innovation, future scenario modelling with world governments; enhancing well-being and communication in medical education; and imagining the future of imaging with CERN＂--

Helen Marshall is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at The University of Queensland, Australia. She researches genre fiction, modern and medieval publishing cultures, worldbuilding, franchise writing and the application of creative arts methodologies for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary ideation. She has won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and her debut novel The Migration was one of The Guardian’s top science fiction books of the year.

Kim Wilkins is a Professor of Writing at the University of Queensland, Australia. She is a recognized expert on creative practice, genre fiction and the publishing industry. She is the author of more than thirty full-length works of fiction and her work is translated into more than twenty languages globally. Her scholarly research centres on creative communities, such as writing groups and fan cultures. She is most recently the author of Genre Worlds: Popular Fiction and 21st-Century Book Culture (2022, with Beth Driscoll and Lisa Fletcher).

Lisa Bennett is an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Flinders University, Australia, where she researches Viking Age literature, genre fiction and popular culture. Her speculative fiction has won four Aurealis Awards, an Australian National Science Fiction Award and has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award. She facilitates fantasy and horror fiction workshops for Writers SA, regularly reviews for the ABR and is a recurrent guest on ABC Radio’s ’Book of the Week’ segment. With Kim Wilkins, she is the author of Writing Bestsellers: Love, Money, and Creative Practice (2021).