You’ve sold the book and now they want another—by a certain day. Join us to learn how other mid-career authors acclimated to deadlines, balanced schedules, and got the book done on time—or managed when the deadline slipped.
What happens when an idea forms between two (or more!) authors? How do you share ideas, build consensus, and manage drafts and revisions? Join us to explore how collaborative writing relationships work and how to build them.
Read more about Collaborative Writing: How to Share Your Brainspace
When many popular traditional publishers have New York or otherwise North American roots, “breaking in” from elsewhere in the world can be difficult. In this panel, writers living beyond the US and Canada discuss their publishing experiences.
Read more about Living Overseas and Publishing in the US and CA
For writers seeking traditional publication the right agent is key. We cover practical querying techniques, time management tactics, and when to call in your support triangle. We cover mindset issues that crop up as you submit to the slush piles, and help you focus on finding the right long-term business partner/agent. This isn’t a class about query letters, or polishing your first five pages. This is a class about navigating the slush piles from a place of empowerment. Walk away with a list of agent author interview questions and more.
Read more about Finding the Right Literary Agent & Maintaining Your Sanity Along the Way
Worldbuilding is challenging for any writer, but building a new world in a small space is its own feat. This panel will include writers of short stories and short story collections to discuss how they accomplish quick and effective worldbuilding.
As SFWA welcomes and integrates game writers into the membership, non-game writers have the opportunity to acquire critical tools for evaluating the work of their games writing colleagues to better equip themselves when voting for the Nebulas or expanding into games themselves. This panel will introduce important concepts and tools for evaluating game writing.
Speculative Fiction can be a way of escape for both the writer and the reader. What are ways that trauma shows up in fiction? How does it translate to the page? How do we approach out own trauma when developing stories versus how do we approach writing about trauma that isn’t our lived experience? Authors from various backgrounds and perspectives discuss how to create a safe space to process trauma through storytelling.
Writing for kids comes with a lot of unwritten rules, beyond just to take out the swearing and the sex. This panel will go over some of the things authors were surprised to learn was different in writing for middle grade than writing for an adult or YA audience.
Read more about The Written and Unwritten Rules of Middle Grade
The second person is often regarded as difficult, complex, or experimental. But it doesn’t need to be! Explore how your work could benefit from this technique with authors who have intentionally and successfully written from this perspective.
Latinx writers still write under the shadow of Magical Realism–and not even the original conception of it, but a kind of generic, watered-down, and frankly, appropriated version of it. But all of you write exciting, extra-real stories that blend blatant fantasy with characters and situations that speak to the Latinx experience in authentic and useful ways. How is that thing done?
Read more about Every Little Thing They Do Is Magic: Latinx Writers Talk Fantasy and Realism