I am leading a Speculative Fiction workshop for Inlandia Institute. Below are the details, and there’s more information on the Inlandia site.
Dates:
Alternating Tuesdays, 9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, and 11/11
Time:
6-8pm
Zoom Link:
Submission guidelines:
- I will place each story into a shared Google Drive folder so we can each download them, then add comments, etc., to our own versions of the files
- Preferred length: 2000 to 6000 words or so. You can submit something longer, but workshoppers should not feel obligated to comment on the story beyond the 6K word mark.
- I’m not going to be a super stickler on formatting, most important is that we get to read your story, but I’d prefer we all use Shunn’s “modern” standard manuscript formatting – WITH ONE EXCEPTION – please don’t feel obligated to put your address in the manuscript. Many short fiction markets will reject you outright for submitting something that doesn’t follow the format they require, and this is the most common, so it’s good to get familiar with it.
- Excerpts from novels or longer works… Novel manuscript formatting is a little different, so just don’t sweat that, but it’s good to do something similar…
- If you’re not sending us the beginning of the novel, include a summary of what happens before this submission starts
- If you’re sending the beginning of the novel, it can also be helpful to include a 1-2 page synopsis of the novel (don’t worry about spoilers) – not required, though!
- Total length of the submission should still be 2-6K including any synopsis or summary content
- For first submission, I strongly encourage you give us the opening of the novel – assuming we have capacity to critique additional submissions,we can critique more of the novel later in the workshop
Critique Guidelines:
Most Inlandia workshops adhere to a version of the Amherst method. It’s a great method, and that approach can serve us well in our critique process. For Speculative Fiction, however, we’re blending that approach with a modified Milford method. The key difference is that, unlike the Amherst approach, we can provide feedback on things that, from your perspective as an individual reader, didn’t work for you.
This is more appropriate for Speculative Fiction because we may be inventing new worlds, and the reader cannot make as many assumptions about how the world of the story works. As Spec Fic writers, we often find ourselves looking for ways to convey worldbuilding information in a way that doesn’t derail the story, and yet gives the reader the information they need in order to follow the story.
That said, it’s still critical to provide positive feedback, which is often even more valuable to the writer when they go into revision. A good approach is the “sandwich method” which starts and ends on positive points, and there can be a mixture in the middle. It’s important to remember that great stories aren’t great because they lack any flaws, they’re successful because they did key things really, really well. So, the most valuable feedback is often helping the writer understand what worked for you.