February 2019: R-SPEC Annual Meeting & Using Speculative Fiction Tropes

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.