The Nebula Conference & Events

Genre categories and conventions can set expectations with readers, but to some authors they represent limitations to the imagination. However, a story that subverts “the rules” can be challenging to place in the market–how can authors find an audience for books that break the mold? Join us as we experiment and celebrate coloring outside the lines!

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Video games are the most lucrative entertainment industry sector, with 65% of the US population playing regularly. What can SFF authors writing in non-game mediums — novelists, writers of short stories, novellas and novelettes, etc. — learn from gaming? What do video games teach us about world-building? How is video game storytelling the ultimate example of “show, don’t tell,” and what techniques can writers extract from it to use in a non-visual medium? How do video games create compelling characters with a spare minimum of dialogue/description, and how can we as authors learn to do the same? While our readers may not be able to control our stories as directly as players in a game, what can we learn from gaming to create the same feeling of first-person urgency through deep POV? What video game titles in particular do panelists feel have the most to teach us as SFF authors?