writing

Every story plot needs to be sculpted, but you don't have to start with just raw clay. Structural elements can help you find and create something new out of some basic materials. We'll discuss three major structural elements:

1. The Foundation. The basic shape of the story, as demonstrated with various styles of act structures and plot building techniques.
2. Scaffolding. How can the foundation be built on piece by piece, and how can each story arc, chapter, or episode serve to further the plot?
3. Nuts and Bolts. Dealing with the little things to help push plot along. 

We'll finish the meeting by plotting a future episode of Space Archaeologists, a serial created specifically for the R-Spec podcast!

Facilitator: Hugh Sullivan
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: September 1, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

In our July 7 meeting, attendees are invited to read from their current or in-progress works. (Older or sold stories and poems are also welcome, especially if you'd like some kind of feedback on it.) Please bring a short piece or a portion of a longer work -- fewer than 1,000 words if you can, but up to 2,000 words if you can't break the scene -- so everyone has sufficient reading time and attendees have time to provide their feedback.

Please try to arrive before 7 to put your name on the list for reading.

After the readings conclude and time permits, we'll go around and share with the group what we're currently reading.

Moderator: Alan Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: July 7, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Fantasy and science fiction stories let your characters inhabit and explore worlds that exist only in your imagination. Yet, creating realistic and cohesive settings can be challenging, because you are dealing with imaginary and potentially transformative environments. In mainstream fiction, you can rely on the familiarity your readers may have with various cities, regions, and cultures, including descriptions from history and shared memes. It’s different for speculative fiction stories. You need to build your settings and everything else from the ground up. In many ways, your settings come to life in the same manner as do your characters.

During our June 2 meeting, our panelists will help you explore how to create speculative fiction settings that move your stories towards exciting conclusions, and leave lasting impressions with your readers – maybe even more lasting than those found in our everyday world.

Panel: Kurt Schweitzer, Eric Scoles, Lynn Spitz, and Ted Wenskus
Moderator: Alan Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: June 2, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

In October's meeting, Kurt Schweitzer will discuss podcasting. He'll offer a brief history, explore where podcasting stands today, and why you would want to do it.

From there he'll move on to a discusion of how to do it, including a hardware and software show and tell and a review of resources available to you.

Moderator: Kurt Schweitzer
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: October 6, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

What does it take to create a compelling comic or graphic novel? For an inside look, we interview Ray Claxton, writer and co-creator of the online comic The Tales of Dark Raven about his experiences, insights, and resources for like-minded comic writers of all levels.

A lifelong comics fan, Ray Claxton is a graphic designer/art director and design educator with over 15 years experience in the advertising and marketing fields. He is a visiting professor at Miami University and has taught graphic design at Alfred University, Nazareth College, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. As a comic writer, he has collaborated with artists across the globe on a variety of short stories in addition to his work with artist Brian Robbins on The Tales of Dark Raven.

Moderator: Ted Wenskus
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: August 4, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Writing successful stories is a careful balancing act of knowing where to start, removing roadblocks that keep your story from moving forward, keeping the reader engaged through dialogue and plot, avoiding boring the reader with unnecessary descriptions, and delivering a satisfying ending. Backstory often gets in the way and can ultimately cause your story to fall flat for your readers.

In our May 5, 2015 meeting, we discussed the pitfalls of bogging your story down with the dreaded “info dump” and explored the answers to these questions and more: How do I show, rather than tell, the information I want my readers to know about my characters and the story’s background? Is all that information necessary in the first place? Do my readers really need to know “what came before” to enjoy where I am taking them?

Moderator: Alan Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: May 5, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Human-habitable planets are a staple of science fiction, but not everyone has the technical background to construct self-consistent, scientifically accurate, and believable worlds. Our March 3 meeting is for the SF writer who needs a plausible background for his story, but doesn’t know how to go about creating it.

We’ll discuss the factors that make a planet habitable for humans, and put bookends on the physical attributes that a terrestrial planet can have and still support a human-compatible biosphere. Along the way, we’ll note which parameters the writer has a free hand to twiddle with, and discuss some of the narrative “color” waiting to be found in the superficially dry data that describe a planet. There will be a Q&A session after the talk, and, if time permits, we’ll try our hands at designing a planet or two.

Moderator: Lynn Spitz
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: March 3, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

In our February 3 meeting (tonight), attendees are invited to participate in a writing workshop focusing on using only dialogue to describe characters, settings, and plot. Prompts will be provided and, if desired, participants may read their drafts and receive feedback from those in attendance. After the meeting, we will discuss some R-SPEC business news, including when we're holding the R-SPEC Annual Meeting and the 2015 program calendar.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: February 3, 2015 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Love it or hate it, creating believable, interesting dialogue is one of the most important skills to learn as a writer —and it can be one of the most challenging. Meredith Carroll and Ted Wenskus will lead a lively presentation focused on helping writers give voice to their characters and hone their dialogue-writing skills whether for fiction, plays, or audio dramas. We’ll share important tips on the uses of dialogue, examine its construction, and touch on some of the unique challenges that face writers of speculative fiction. We’ll also share examples of good and bad dialogue (feel free to bring your own examples, too) and run a brief workshop to see these tips in action.

Moderator: Ted Wenskus + Meredith Carroll
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: October 7, 2014 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

What is flash fiction and microfiction? How do I start? What about character and plot development? What do I leave in? And what must I leave out? This is a fun opportunity to write a really short story from scratch using speculative fiction prompts we will provide. Then, if you desire, you'll read your flash story aloud to receive feedback. Bring your favorite (but quiet) writing system – quill & ink, pen & paper or electronic tablet. (Please, no typewriters.) After describing the exercise process and selecting prompts, the Writing Phase begins.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: September 2, 2014 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.