A Speculative Fiction Bag of Tricks

INSTRUCTOR: Tanya Aydelott

TIME: Sunday, September 29, 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. CDT

PRICE: Early bird price: $45 for members, $60 for nonmembers. The deadline for early bird pricing is Monday, September 23. After Monday, September 23: $55 for members, $70 for nonmembers. Become a member here. Apply for a scholarship here.

LOCATION: Online via Zoom

LEVEL: All levels

CAP: 15

My job is to make you believe in something that is not true and did not happen to people who do not exist. If I do my job correctly, I send you back into your life feeling different, feeling like you've experienced something that you haven't experienced before, maybe even seeing the world a little bit differently…. [I’m] making these big roomy things with space that are not true and giving them to people in order to allow them to see we hope for greater truths. — Neil Gaiman

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term for fictions of the unreal: fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, etc. It resonates with readers because it allows us to see our world and our circumstances through the lens of metaphor, gifting us “big roomy space” to wrangle big ideas and issues. But figuring out where to start writing a speculative fiction story — or, indeed, how to start — can be challenging. This generative workshop will offer you the chance to consider how a speculative world might fit the stories you want to tell, give you space to experiment with world-building and character-construction, and encourage you to incorporate speculative elements into your writing.

We will experiment with a range of tools to get you started crafting your own speculative fiction worlds, characters, and plots. Come ready to play!

This event is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. This project is generously funded by the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and Mid-America Arts Alliance.

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Host or Publisher Writespace