Keynote Speech: Holding the Line: Writers and the Rise of AI with Susan Juby
A Keynote Speech with Susan Juby
The AI revolution is here and it has serious implications for the literary arts. This talk will examine some of the impacts of generative AI on writing, including in the areas of education and publishing. It will argue that original, human-generated storytelling is essential for sustaining our imaginative and civic lives. There are elements of good writing that only individuals who have lived in the world can produce and we can learn to deepen that individuality and nuanced humanity in our work.
Writing Beyond Yourself: Imagination, Empathy, and the Ethics of Creating Characters
A Workshop with C.E. Gatchalian
What does it mean to write characters whose cultures, identities, histories, or lived experiences differ from our own? In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the possibilities—and responsibilities—of writing beyond the boundaries of personal experience. Through discussion and writing exercises, participants will consider questions of research, imagination, empathy, specificity, and power. How can we approach unfamiliar experiences with curiosity and humility without becoming so afraid of getting things wrong that our imaginations shut down entirely? Open to writers working in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and dramatic writing, this workshop offers practical tools for creating complex characters and engaging thoughtfully with lives beyond our own.
Use Techniques from Historical Fiction to Create an Immersive Reading Experience in Any Genre
A Workshop with Janie Chang
Book lovers who read to escape into the world of the novel hope for stories that deliver an immersive experience. Authors achieve this by infusing the story with a vivid sense of place and time. In historical fiction, where the story’s place and time could be unfamiliar to readers, this is even more challenging. How can authors convey settings, history, social norms and a multitude of other information without sounding like a textbook? Bestselling historical novelist Janie Chang shares some of her most effective techniques and shows how they’re relevant and can be applied to any genre.
Building Community through Marketing and Cross-Promo: How to Sell Books, Build Brand, and Develop Great Networks with Bill Arnott
A Workshop with Bill Arnott
Whatever your genre, understanding marketing and promotion is essential to your success as a writer, whether publishing traditionally, self-publishing, or both. During this 75-minute WCW workshop we’ll look at the key components of a Marketing Plan, including understanding SWOT analyses, SMART goals, and RATIOs, along with strategic goal-setting, networking, and the power of cross-promotion. There’ll be opportunity to put pen to paper, and for in-depth Q&A. Along with this, attendees will learn how to perfect a MEDIA KIT, and Bill’s 15 proven promo strategies!
Feedback
A Workshop with Anne Fleming
It’s funny that we use the word feedback to mean the comments we offer fellow writers when it’s also the screeching sound that makes us cover our ears at open mics when output has become input and been retransmitted.
We’ve all probably had the experience of receiving unhelpful or wrongheaded feedback. But we still want to know what people think about our writing. So what do we do?
I believe there are a lot more options than those we’ve traditionally used. I also believe collectively we can come up with more still.
This workshop invites participants to ask what, in writing communities, are the most truly useful ways of reflecting our reading of a work back to its author?
My Hand is a Red Brick: an image-system workshop
A Workshop with Michael V. Smith
This workshop is designed to help writers build robust imagery for their work in any genre. How do you improve your big ideas to get the best bang for your buck? Drawing from his experience in film, writer Michael V. Smith walks you through easy-to-access steps to understanding how to build, and strengthen, the sensory imagery in your work. The workshop involves brainstorming, some simple film analysis, small exercises, and rubbing in a little DIY gumption. Participants each complete a short piece during the workshop.
Red Stained Glasses Make the Rosiest Filter: crafting villains readers will love
A Workshop with Val R. Caine
In this 75 minute workshop, Val R. Caine will delve into how to make villains and the horrible acts they commit feel real and uncomfortably understandable. In a combined hands-on and lecture style format, she’ll go into moving away from the classic “tragic past” motivation and how to craft morally twisted characters that remain lovable.
Building Your Writing Community: Why, and How
A Panel with Andrea Buck, J.C. Corry, Angela Douglas, and C.E. Gatchalian
Join authors writing in different genres (Andrea Buck, J.C. Corry, Angela Douglas, and C.E. Gatchalian) as they share how they have built their writing community, and why this has been so important to their respective writing careers. Seeking Beta readers, mentors or blurb providers? Navigating agents, publishers, and media? Or simply making friends who support each other on their own unique journey, building community can take many paths, is often a leap of faith, but is always an investment that pays long-term returns.
Social Installations: Building Community Through Podcasting
A Workshop with Danika Dinsmore
What happens when a creative idea collides with other perspectives and takes on a life of its own? A product of an assignment for Danika’s PhD studies, the Social Installations podcast explores the transformational aspects of creativity, individually and collectively. Its theoretical foundation lies in the importance of our creative agency and how risk-taking leads to the beautiful synchronicity and serendipity of a community finding itself. Using the medium of podcasting, Danika will demonstrate this phenomenon using short clips from the show, unpacking the creativity model behind it, and leading participants in “social installations” of their own.
Slush-pile Confidential
A Workshop with JM Landels, Mel Anastasiou, and Sierra Louie
Learn what goes on behind the scenes at a literary press. What is the slushpile, how does it work, how long should you wait for a response? Learn what catches an editor’s eye and what can turn her off your story, and, once it’s accepted, what steps it goes through to become a published work.
