Poets and multi-genre speculative authors discuss trends in style, inspiration, publication, and the role poetry plays in the SFF community.
A panel of experienced writers will discuss mistakes in their writing careers, moments of imperfection, and a few things they wish they’d done differently. Join this conversation for humorous anecdotes and advice on how to avoid the these same pitfalls.
Many writers turn to self-publishing to supplement their income. But self-publishing brings a set of unique challenges. How can authors determine whether a hybrid career is the best option?
Writing while parenting has never been simple, and the pandemic context had only served to complicate the task. Join us for a discussion on how to manage caring for a family and balancing creative endeavors.
Magic is often an important part of fantasy worlds, but magic can also play a pivotal part in the character development of those people who encounter it. In MG and YA fantasy, where character arcs often represent characters coming into their own, magic can be a useful tool to explore aspects of each characters’ identities and to help them along on their character arcs. In this panel, debut MG and YA authors discuss the role of magic in a young protagonist’s character arc, how they have intertwined their world’s magic in with their character’s journeys, and how other writers can do the same.
Read more about Growing up Magical: How Magic Can Be Used To Explore Identity in MG and YA
While going freelance is often the dreamed-of goal, not everyone who goes there likes it. Many creatives shift back-and-forth between full-time freelance and having a paycheck job. How do you know when it’s time to shift? Without a traditional resume, HOW do you shift?
Read more about Shifting Sands: Balancing Freelance with a Paycheck
What is the difference between writing in your own world and writing in someone else’s world? What are the pitfalls to avoid? How do you make sure you get the characters right? Where can you stretch your literary legs and where do you need to hold back? And how do you get the IP owners to choose you to write for them?
Should readers like every character? What about every narrator or protagonist? In this panel, authors who have written unlikable narrators will discuss how the unsympathetic and unappealing nature of their characters serve their narrative.
With 21.45% of the US population falling into the Baby Boomer category (with another 19.71% being Gen X), readers are increasingly looking for more mature characters in books and movies. Some writers are meeting the demand with heros in their 40s and 50s, but can we go further? Faster? Older? What are the pitfalls and limitations of writing characters beyond the traditionally accepted age groups in SF/F? Better yet, what is the potential?
Narrative design is often misunderstood as being a synonym for game writing, but good narrative design combines the tools of storytelling, game design, and narrative strategy to help bring a game to life. This panel brings together narrative designers to talk about the ways that narrative systems deliver, shape, and change storytelling – and how their own work in this field has evolved and grown over time.