News

Myriad Worlds of Possibilities – Read Your Work

Attendees are invited to read from their current or in-progress works or to share their writing roadblocks. (An older or sold story or poem is also welcome, especially if you'd like feedback on it.) Please bring a short piece or a portion of a longer work – fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 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 6:45 p.m. to put your name on the reading list.

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

Moderator:  Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: November 5, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Time. There's too much and never enough of it. It can be a writer’s friend or mortal enemy.

The truth is we can’t manage time. We can only manage our tasks. So, how do we get our writing done? It’s easy. We write. Pen to paper, fingers on the keyboard, or recording our voice. Easy, yes? Except, there are so many things that get in our way.

Our October roundtable will be about how to remove roadblocks, what “hacks” other writers have used, and personal stories of what impedes a writer’s progress. Please join us for a lively discussion of techniques for getting our writing … done!

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: October 1, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Does your story seem stuck in place? Are you focused more on the idea of the plot or your story ideas, rather than on the characters and their conflicts?

During our September 3 meeting, you’ll learn how to go beyond just plotting out your story. You’ll recognize the experiential stages of your character’s journey, and the result will be a more satisfying story. When you focus on the underlying dilemma of your story, you’ll see what you’re really trying to express to your audience.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: September 3, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Coming up next week at our monthly meeting: "The Future of Manned Space Exploration (Part III)", presented by Frank Glover!

As mankind celebrates 50 years since our first steps onto an alien world, billionaires, corporations, and countries are all vying to make the next big leaps into space. In our August 6 meeting, Frank Glover returns to present new insights and information about the United States’ manned space programs, including the vehicles and exploration plans currently underway at Bigelow Aerospace, Blue Origin, Boeing, NASA, SpaceX, Stratolaunch Systems, United Launch Alliance, and Virgin Galactic.

Presenter:Frank Glover
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: August 6, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Myriad Worlds of Possibilities – Read Your Work

Attendees are invited to read from their current or in-progress works or to share their writing roadblocks. (An older or sold story or poem is also welcome, especially if you'd like feedback on it.) Please bring a short piece or a portion of a longer work – fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 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 6:45 p.m. to put your name on the reading list.

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

Moderator: Eric Scoles
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: July 2, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

A story isn’t just a collection of words strung together.  It has a structure, starting with the overarching plot and filtering down to the scenes, the paragraphs, the sentences, and the individual word choices.   The first and the last of these get a lot of attention, but we’re going to look at the often-neglected middle ground:  the style and structure of your sentences and paragraphs.  How you construct and arrange these can have a big impact on how your story feels to the reader, just as much as the plot and the vocabulary choices do.

Moderator: Lynn Spitz and Hugh Sullivan
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: June 4, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

In May, we'll have a group discussion about how the magic in your story can support (or fail to support) your story's Big Idea(s). We'll talk about how to identify the Big Idea and see how it interacts with nuts & bolts such as where the magic comes from, who gets to deploy it, & how they learn to do so - and what that all means for the story you're trying to tell.

Moderator: Eric Scoles
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: May 7, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Myriad Worlds of Possibilities – Read Your Work

Attendees are invited to read from their current or in-progress works or to share their writing roadblocks. (An older or sold story or poem is also welcome, especially if you'd like feedback on it.) Please bring a short piece or a portion of a longer work – fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 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 6:45 p.m. to put your name on the reading list.

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

Moderator:Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: April 2, 2019 from 6:45-8:45 p.m.

Completing your story, novel, video game script, or play is just the beginning. What are the next steps? During our March R-SPEC meeting, we'll talk about what to do after you're done writing. Join the discussion, share your thoughts and tips, and start planning what you can do to get your writing out to your intended audience.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford

Meeting Time:March 5, 2019 from 6:45 – 8:45 p.m.

R-SPEC will be holding its Annual Meeting during the first half-hour of the February meeting. We'll review our accomplishments in 2018 and elect board members for the coming year. This meeting is open to the public, but only paid R-SPEC members are eligible to be on the board and to vote in the elections.

Then, we’ll delve into speculative fiction tropes – character types, plot points, and story structures – that crop up repeatedly and sometimes for no good reason. You’ll likely encounter tropes when you create your story, novel, role-playing game, or a video or movie script. Knowing when to avoid a fantasy or science fiction trope will help your prose have its own unique voice. Knowing when to use a trope to your advantage can help you create something new, interesting, or simply hilarious. The choice is up to you.

Our panel will present some of the common tropes – time travel, oxygen leaks, talking dragons, etc. – and you’re invited to share tropes that appeal to you or tropes you’re thoroughly tired of seeing. We’ll discuss how to fix tropes and get them to aid your story, and we’ll see if there are any tropes worth saving.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Panelists: Eric Scoles, Lynn Spitz, Hugh Sullivan, and Ted Wenskus

Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford

Meeting Time: February 5, 2019 from 6:45 – 8:45 p.m.