Saturday
Conference Day 2 – Saturday, October 22, 2022
8:00 am – 4:00 pm
In Person: Bookstore is Open – Guildford Foyer
9:00 am – 9:45 am
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded: Opening Session in Guildford Ballroom.
10:00 am – 11:15 am Workshops
Virtual and Recorded
Writing practice can be difficult to maintain when things go wrong--when the world is dark around us, either because of global or personal events or both.
This workshop aims at offering a toolbox for creating and sustaining a writing practice in difficult times: how to nurture motivation, how to find joy and strength, how to set priorities, and how to reconnect with one's inner muse."
Virtual and Recorded
Whether you've lost that creative drive during the pandemic, or you're looking to fit writing into a busy life, rapid writing techniques can help writers get started on new work, or push forward on current projects. In this workshop, Sturgeon and IGNYTE Award finalist, R.S.A. Garcia, will present practical tips and tricks to get you writing quickly. These fun, voluntary exercises will help writers of all genres. Have your pen and paper (or keyboard) ready!
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
So how exactly do authors make money and where does it come from? Carly will dive into the different types of publishers, what a profit-and-loss statement is, what parts of your contract can be negotiated, what sub-rights are, and much more.
Learn how an advance is determined and what common royalties rates are as you set yourself up for success and prepare to step into a writing career."
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Readers are pulled through stories by various forms of tension. Conflict, as a relatively external form of tension, is easy to see and to teach. Other forms of tension, such as juxtaposition, doubt, twists, or unanswered questions, can pull a reader through a narrative by creating a sense of anticipation.
In Person Only
While consent is sexy, it is also completely necessary. Rebekah Weatherspoon will show the ways to incorporate enthusiastic consent into your romantic and erotic scenes without pulling readers out of the moment.
In Person Only
Using tools like outlining and synopses in new ways, learn how to better visualize your novel's pacing and structure to make it an even more engaging read. We will discuss how to group the action by section, character and theme to better identify weak spots and under-utilized connections. This class will be ideal for those working in genre spaces. Please bring pen and paper and any working outline or synopsis you currently have. Multiple colored pens are recommended.
In Person Only
The youngest of readers interact with picture books in very physical ways—and we’re not just talking about chewing the cardboard or ripping out pages! We’ll consider how interactive elements, line breaks, page turns, and other techniques enhance the reading experience, focusing on picture books for ages 4+.
11:45 am – 1:00 pm Workshops
Virtual and Recorded
In this crime writing workshop we will take a villainous perspective on your writing. We will delve into the psyche of your criminal and look at the emotional underpinning of the crime - the why, the stakes, the motivations. We will turn your baddie into a multi-dimensional character with elements to love and to hate. This is a hands on workshop with plenty of writing exercises and quizzes thrown in to get you thinking about what drives someone to commit a heinous crime.
Virtual and Recorded
Whether you're putting the spotlight on happily ever after, or romance is the understudy in your story, Alyssa will help you understand the structure and elements of romantic storytelling, and how to craft compelling relationships that will make readers swoon.
Virtual and Recorded
It's an increasingly difficult trick to ensnare a reader in a story, keep their interest, and then zig when they're anticipating a zag. In this workshop, bestselling, award-winning crime writer Roz Nay will delve into what makes a great hook, how to sustain readers' investment, and what the unspoken rules are of a satisfying twist.
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Secondary characters can have so many different roles to play, and you want to make them intriguing but you don't want them to steal the spotlight from your main characters, and then sometimes they continue on when you've finished the book and then demand their own story, and...and...and... Join our panel to discuss how to create secondary characters who fulfill their role without being two dimensional or taking over the story entirely.
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Whether you're writing literary fiction, fantasy, mystery or romance, mastering sex scenes can be one of the most difficult challenges for any writer. In this session we’ll talk about the importance of setting the stage before your characters hit the bed/shower/back seat of a 1975 Chevy Nova coupe. You’ll learn how to describe intimate acts without referencing sausages, buns or power tools, and how to draw the reader in while moving the story forward. How...
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Getting set to pursue publication? Join Wesley Chu for an information-packed session on everything you need to know about publishing from a writer's perspective. Topics will include querying, matching the right agent, high level overview of contracts, foreign rights, film/tv rights, general pitfalls to avoid, online resources, etc.
In Person Only
Join JJ Lee alongside panelists Catherine Chen, Danielle Geller, Kevin Spenst and Lindsay Wong as they discuss some of the key ingredients behind a successful memoir (whether you define success as commercial or literary). What does an emerging memoirist need to know about the form before approaching publishers? What does it take to make a self-story pitch to stand out from all the others?
In Person Only
We’ve talked about bad guys in the past, but what if the problem is coming from inside? Conflict is critical to a story, but often the biggest hurdle to reaching our goals is our own internal conflict. Bring your notebook and pen and get ready to write as we explore the purpose of internal conflict and how you can use it in your story. We’ll discuss how we get in our own way and how that internal conflict can up the stakes and emotional connections in your manuscript.
In Person Only
It happens to every writer: One day you’re happily drafting your story and the next, it feels like you’ve run into a brick wall or gotten completely lost in a tangled forest of your own making. Don’t despair! In this session, we’ll discuss some useful techniques for getting unstuck and finding your way back into the narrative. We’ll start with the importance of identifying the core of your story, mapping its key turning points, and diagnosing common problems. We’ll engage...
In Person Only
What is it about certain books that when we finish the final page the characters stay with us for days? What is it about those characters that has made them so memorable? Using examples from his own and other writers, Bob will teach techniques to make your characters well-rounded individuals that will keep readers wondering about them long after they have finished your book.
In Person Only
Writing poetry to help express, explore, and honour grief and loss.
Loss is part of life, but in a society that’s often uncomfortable with grief, there are challenges and obstacles to expressing and processing its difficult emotions. How do we move beyond the roadblocks? As writers, it’s natural for us to turn to words as a way to explore, understand, and honour our losses – maybe even to heal our battered hearts. How do we begin? How can poetry help? How can we hope to...
1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
In Person: Luncheon, Guildford Ballroom (Full Conference Attendees Only)
Virtual: Luncheon, Zoom Ballroom and Bar
2:30 pm – 3:45 pm Workshops
Virtual and Recorded
Why does "party" have a slightly different feel to it than "gathering"? Which words in a long sentence jump out at a reader? In this workshop, we'll answer these questions and more while examining how sentence length, grammatical structure, and word choice add resonance and meaning to our stories. Bring a sentence you love from someone else's work and a sentence you're struggling with from your own - we'll go through a few of both at the end if there's time! (Note:...
Virtual and Recorded
Playwright and author Marty Chan borrows techniques from his theatre background to help fiction writers inject drama into their stories. With his easy-to-remember and quick-to-apply cheat code, you’ll be able to create conflict out of any situation and pump life into a drab story.
SiWC Idol
Panel
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Our ever-popular first-page reads panel is back in person!
Mary Robinette Kowal reads your first page submissions aloud to our panel of agents. When they'd stop reading if your page was a submission, Mary Robinette stops reading, and we hear why they agents said they'd stop.
This panel is a GREAT way to see what kinds of common errors and writing weaknesses put agents off. Come and learn what makes an excellent first page.
(For attendees:...
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Join Diana Gabaldon for this metaphorical and literal discussion. It starts with finding the actual light in a story, and what that can tell you: how is the light falling, what time of day is it, who or what is the light falling _on_, and so forth... It's about finding what's important in your story and how to highlight those elements.
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Books should reflect the world around us. But how do writers do that in a responsible, thoughtful way? This workshop will provide some important considerations and the space to discuss this complex and essential topic. Participants should come with an open mind and a willingness to look inwardly at their writing practice.
In Person Only
Have you been itching to write a series? In this presentation, we’ll go through the journey of being a series writer. We’ll start with how to pitch our ideas and break down the format behind a series proposal. Then we’ll discuss writing tips and helpful tools to use while crafting a series. We’ll also cover associated topics like write-for-hire deals and pen names. Join this session for some series fun.
In Person Only
Join nonfiction children’s book editor Kirstie Hudson to find out how to turn your book concept into a great pitch. She shares tips and advice about how to hook an editor, what not to include and how to make your idea stand out in the slush pile.
In Person Only
No one reads a thriller about the pleasant people of pleasantville to whom nothing unpleasant happens. Monstrous villains, all-or-nothing conflict, and relentless tension turn pages. Learn how to craft roller-coaster fiction.
In Person Only
Poetry is the purest distance between two points. It is an essential part of any writers life and is the backbone to our greatest epics and our most sublime fairytales. You can find it in the lyrics of your main character's favourite song, buried in the heart of Tolkien's trilogy, at play in the stories of every culture, real and imagined. But how does one approach a poem, how does one coax it into existence, and then, once we have a poem, what to do with it?
Join three...
4:15 pm – 5:30 pm Workshops
Virtual and Recorded
This talk will focus on the practicalities of writing across different genres and subgenres. From the topic of pen names and the value of one star reviews, to the idea of your writing style itself, this will be a wide-ranging discussion that'll tackle what it takes to build a career across different genres or subgenres of work. Questions encouraged.
Virtual and Recorded
What’s an ‘audience’ and how does a writer acquire one? When the first draft is done and the rewrites begins many authors ask the question: who is my intended audience? Sure, we want as many people as possible to read our work, but identifying our intended audience allows us to make our characters relevant and believable. These characters help us to develop realistic dialogue, scenes, and story detail. In this class we’ll discuss a couple of simple exercises that will...
Panel: Worldbuilding
Panel
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Join our all-star panel for a wide-ranging discussion on all aspects of world building. No matter what you write, whether memoir, high fantasy, romance, mystery, lit fic or any other genre, part of what turns a blank page into a story readers can lose themselves in is world building. Come learn how Wesley Chu, Fonda Lee, and Liza Palmer create the worlds of their stories with moderator Susanna Kearsley.
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
In this workshop we will discuss writing the Other. We will talk about what drove me to create the workshop, the ways MFAs fail many of their students, how to go about doing research, and things like sensitivity readers, the use of language/slang/accents, addressing positionality, and understanding the psychogeography of our characters. Then we will discuss how to use positionality while writing those different from you and how to incorporate societal and...
In Person, Virtual, and Recorded
Thanks to advances in technology, producing your own audio book is now both easy and inexpensive. With over a dozen audio books under her belt, mystery writer Pamela Samuels Young will walk you through the process from beginning to end.
From selecting the right narrator to understanding the technical requirements, Pamela will share all the tips and tricks to set you on the right path.
In Person Only
You know you’re reading a great mystery novel when you’re up at three in the morning, unable to put it down. When you finally get to sleep, the characters go romping around in your dreams. You get to the final page and smack yourself in the head because the solution is a complete surprise, and yet so obvious in retrospect. This session will demystify the art and artifice and get down to the nuts and bolts of writing a killer mystery novel. Topics include:
- What makes...
In Person Only
Writing historical fiction can be a daunting task given the research and planning that needs to happen even before you step onto the page. Examine how to use your story idea to narrow your research focus and pinpoint what you will need to know (and where to go to find it) to bring to life the rich details of worlds past for your novel.
In Person Only
We'll look at ways that discovery writers (aka pantsers) can use various plotting and planning techniques to help prepare for the writing process without sacrificing the fun of discovering the story alongside your characters. We'll also tackle ways you can reverse outline, using plotting techniques in the revision phase to make sure your story shines.
In Person Only
Want to make your words sing? Award-winning author Darren Groth can help turn your one-note prose into beautiful music. In this lively and interactive workshop, Groth will explore examples of elegant writing in both literary and commercial works, provide the three ‘A’s of beautiful prose, and offer practical exercises to shape your words with style.
In Person Only
Have you been motivated by all you're learning to get words on paper, but need to get out of your own way? Join Nhung Tran-Davies for a series of writing prompts and ten-minute sprints to help shake things loose and get words on paper. This session is all about writing, so come prepared with a notebook and get set for writers' cramp!
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