#Writing workshops

[adastra-sf]

Summer Speculative-Fiction Writing Workshops

Looking for a workshop to ramp up your speculative-fiction writing skills? Award-winning authors and long-time creative-writing educators Kij Johnson and Chris McKitterick are taking applications for the Ad Astra Institute's annual Science Fiction Summer right now.

Christopher McKitterick's Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop runs June 16-29, and his "Repeat Offenders" Workshop for alums runs June 30 - July 13. This year's special guest instructor is experimental particle physicist and SF expert Phil Baringer! Spots are still available in both - full info here:

Kij Johnson and Barbara Webb's "Novel Architects" Writing Workshop runs June 30 - July 13, and their "Repeat Offenders" Workshop for alums runs June 16-29. They still have a couple spots open if you act fast! More info:

If you can't make it but know someone who might benefit from a professional SF writing workshop, please help spread the word.

Attendees of these workshops have gone on to publish tons of stories, novels, and nonfiction, plus win awards, start magazines, and much more. The alum network is strong and vital, and has spun off multiple small workshops and writing groups.

The Ad Astra Institute is a registered nonprofit educational organization, and we've been offering writing workshops since 1983.

Limited scholarships are still available.

Ad Astra!

[adastrasf]

To the Stars Through Stories

We're now @adastra-sf here on Tumblr - follow our new blog for daily posts about SF, writing, science, and other cool stuff.

Check out our website at AdAstra-SF.com

We're also on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

Want to learn to write publishable fiction?

We're currently taking applications for our Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop, which runs June 16 - 29, 2024. Apply now to make your writing soar!

[steven-thefish-burnsides]

A couple years ago, I was in a creative writing class, and after my teacher read one of my stories, she asked me to explain what it was about in 1-3 sentances. When I couldn't do it, she asked me a rhetorical question :

"If you can't explain it, how can you write a story about it?"

At the time, I didn't know how to respond. There was a feeling that she was wrong, but I didn't have the words ready. Then, a couple days later, I figured out what I should've told her:

"If I could explain it in a few sentences, why would I need to write a story about it?"

[mckitterick]

Speculative fiction writing workshop June 18-30

~ call for applications ~

Learn to write SF that sells. Using the short-story form, we help you master the elements that create great fiction.

hi folks! there's still room in my intensive summer SF writing workshop held in lovely Lawrence, Kansas, over the final two weeks of June

I lead the workshop, and this year's special guest instructor is experimental particle physicist and science-fiction expert Phil Baringer, who's taught university classes and other professional workshops with me before (he's awesome)

I'm an award-winning SF author, educator, and long-time center director, and I've been teaching this workshop since the 1990s. most alums end up publishing or even starting magazines and book publishing companies of their own, and the growing community of alums are super active beyond our time together

we're taking applications for a couple more weeks or until we fill the roster - if you'd like to get that boost you need to start publishing professionally (or just want to grow your skills as an author), why not join us!

thanks to SFWA and generous friends, scholarships are available

(charming spaceship and sunflower art by Kij Johnson)

full info here: X

[adventurerswritingguild]

Please give a warm welcome to the Adventurer’s Writing Guild, a writing community exclusively open in April & August! Public invites close in 2 weeks 🔮

🦋🔗Join us here! 🔗🦋

In 2020, @nashxra and @shylovrs started a writing Discord server called “let’s #Escapril” in dedication to the April challenge by Savannah Brown. We’ve grown a loving, warm community in the years since…but there’s a fork in every road, adventurers. We’ve decided to rebrand to the AWG to welcome every writer from every creed ⚔🛡

Check out our About page for more info, but here's a quick breakdown of what we provide:

An Inclusive Discord Server: Discuss your writing ventures & share your work 

Prompts & Challenges: Curated to inspire your writing adventures

Community-curated Playlists: Sate your daydreaming needs

Exclusive Workshops: Held in collaboration with @poetryorchard

Collaborative Annual Anthologies: Free & featuring work from members of the guild

Dedicated Co-writing Sessions: Work on projects with fellow adventurers

[hpffwritersguild]

Shades of Dark and Grey Workshop

Hey writers!

We're back with another workshop! This week we'll be focusing on building complex and interesting dark and grey characters; this may help you create villains, antiheroes, ethically questionable protagonists, and all of those characters that are somewhere in the grey.

This workshop will run from this Wednesday, May 17th until Saturday, May 20th, and be ready with a character you'd like to use for the duration of the workshop!

Any character-- original or from any fandom-- is welcome, but they must be depicted as dark or grey.

We'll see you in The Workshop of our Discord server! As always, questions are welcome on the server or to this blog. Happy writing 😁

[j-august]

But the poetry circles regularly attended by [Annegret] Gollin served a similar function to the set-up inside the Stasi: honey traps that allowed the state to attract creative or critical minds and observe them up close. The Stasi found these groups were most effective when run by people who made their students feel sheltered from the more obviously policed world: caring, sensitive men and women, substitute father or mother figures. Once the budding writers let their guard down, they were encouraged to open up about their literary tastes - information then passed straight on to the Stasi.

Philip Oltermann, The Stasi Poetry Circle

[jameyannefuller]

Here is everything you need to know about my writing journey:

My first year of college I took a creative writing course. I wrote a literary short story about a woman returning to her family's beach home for the first time after her younger sister got stuck in a riptide and drowned. At the end of the semester, the professor went around the room and told us what we all secretly wanted to write about.

Apparently, I wanted to write about “strong female characters and water.”

I thought this was ridiculous. Like, what? Just because I wrote one short story about a woman dealing with the death of her sister who drowned doesn't mean I want to write exclusively about strong female characters and water.

But then I wrote a short story about a girl with water magic during a time of drought. And then I wrote another story about an island chain in a fantasy world. And then I wrote a novel about a girl with wind and, you guessed it, water magic. And then... you get the picture.

I didn't try to write so many projects about strong female characters and water. I didn't even realize I'd done it again until after the fact.

And every time I realized I'd done it again I was horrified! I didn't super like this professor. She couldn't be right, could she?

And so I set out to write anything but strong female characters and water, because this is a perfectly normal writing goal to pursue.

This mostly meant eliminating water from my stories.

And so I wrote about strong female characters and fire!

I wrote about strong female characters and music!

I wrote about strong female characters and writing

I took away all my characters' memories, so if they had an affinity for water, they didn't know it!

I used motifs of birds and tea sets and flowers!

I set a whole book in space! Water is scarce in space! Also there's a boy in this one be proud of me.

And then, gentle reader, I let my guard down.

My current WIP takes place on Cape Cod and features a lot of fun beach times and a member of the main trio who is both a female character and a selkie.

I've done it again!

I give up. I should probably just lean into it.

Moral of the story: your creative writing professors are sometimes right about you, actually. I'm sorry.

[igotopinions]

Oliver talks with author and writing teacher Christopher Rowe about writing workshops, such as The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop, where he recently taught. What exactly does a workshop involve? How do you get into one, and what can you expect to get out of it? How, if at all, are they changing with the times? They discuss all this, and more.

Christopher Rowe's author site (Socials: IG, FB, Twitter) Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salesses The Whetstone Tavern Discord

www.soimwritinganovel.com PATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovel

BUY OLIVER’S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/store SO I’M WRITING A NOVEL… TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writing OLIVER’S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenbury Oliver’s Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

[andreamartineauwrites]

An annual practice of gratitude - cheers to 2022!

An annual practice of gratitude – cheers to 2022!

Happy New Year! To put my best foot forward in 2023 and maybe throw a little positive karma out into the universe, I wanted my first post in this new year to be a sincere “thank you” to all of the creative people who supported my writing practice and made up my writing community in 2022. The Canty Collective of Writerly Women was born out of a virtual Sage Hill emerging writers cohort guided by…

[clarionwest]

Six-Week Workshop

The Clarion West Six-Week workshop will be virtual in 2025, from June 22 - August 2, 2025. Applications open December 1, 2024.

Our instructors for the 2025 Six-Week Workshop are:

Maurice Broaddus

Malka Older

Diana Pho

Martha Wells

Each year, Clarion West is able to provide full and partial scholarships to a significant number of applicants, thanks to our generous community of donors and sponsors.

[adastra-sf]

To the Stars Through Stories

Want to learn to write publishable fiction? We're currently taking applications for our summer 2024 Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop, which runs June 16-29.

Apply now to give your writing wings! Only a couple spots left.

Can't make it but know someone who might benefit? Please help spread the word! The Ad Astra Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to making the future a better place for everyone. Scholarships still available.

[anubianwarriorre]

Meadowfield Park

A tanker slips up the Firth Seeming not to move but the river drifts by I stand at the slide and watch her go Wonder where and when she has been Not long ago many boats sat out there Cruise ships, containers and tankers Anchored fleet of metal seabirds Still like the world, if not the waves and sky Funny to think of that time No trains, no planes, all the boats stilled And us tuckered…

[institutewriters]

Each children’s book writing contest culminates in a Winners Workshop where we announce the winners and critique the winning entries to help all entrants improve their skills. Plus, each contest has cash prizes for the top five entries. Check out our children’s book writing contests below.

Sign up now - https://www.instituteforwriters.com/writing-contests/

[mckitterick]

Creativity and the Brain

We hosted this talk at the Lawrence Public Library (in person), and livestreamed via our YouTube channel - remote attendees can participate in the Q&A following Kerr's presentation & demo via the YouTube live chat feature or the Ad Astra Discord channel. More info:

https://adastrasf.ku.edu/ad-astra-presents-science-fiction-creativity-and-brain

I helped get Dr. Kerr and her team set up with the Library tech, and it looks super-cool - they'll be demonstrating their virtual-reality and demonstrating how their live EEG system can show what brain activity looks like during creative and other activities.

The talk kicks off the next "Science into Fiction" Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop series, beginning with a developmental session the weekend of November 12-13, followed by write-ins over the next five weeks, and capping off the cycle with a story-critique session the weekend of December 17-18.

I'll host the writing events in-person in the Ad Astra Center's lovely office/workshop space overlooking campus and also hybrid-online via our Discord channel - last time, about half joined in-person and half remotely, which helped refine our tech to offer the best experience for all, regardless of physical location or accessibility needs. More info:

https://christopher-mckitterick.com/Workshop-stuff/AdAstranauts-workshop.htm

Workshop series #1 went fantastically, producing a bunch of really cool projects. I hope to see some of y'all in this next workshop series!

We'll post about our other upcoming workshops on the Ad Astra website, and already have a few scheduled:

https://adastrasf.ku.edu/workshops

[adventurerswritingguild]

Hark, Adventurers! @poetryorchard is excited to welcome the newly re-branded Adventurer's Writing Guild for a workshop celebrating the work of poets in community! Please join us for the first of four workshop held in collaboration between Poetry Orchard and the Adventurer's Writing Guild.

These workshops are especially open to those who have not attended a writing workshop before!

Sign up here