WRITING DARK FICTION FOR CHILDREN WITH EDEN ROYCE

9:00 — 10:00 A.M. CST

This class will give practical suggestions on writing horror and dark fiction for a young audience, broadening its appeal to adults as well as kids, and make recommendations for further reading.

MONSTROUS WOMEN WITH CARINA BISSETT

10:00 — 11:00 A.M. CST

This workshop focuses on the depiction of female characters in contemporary literature and, as such, offers attending members the opportunity to make relevant connections by defying common stereotypes and tropes in the depiction of monstrous females in their own work.

TEN THINGS I LEARNED WHILE GETTING MY MFA WITH R.B. WOOD

11:00 A.M. — 12:00 P.M. CST

Is a formal writing education for you? It depends. Recently graduating from the Emerson College Master of Fine Arts in Popular Fiction Writing program (with a full ride via the prestigious Emerson Community Scholarship) there is a lot of insight to be gleaned from the MFA experience.

Break for Lunch.

12:00— 1:00 P.M. CST

IT’S MORE THAN JUST TENTACLES: BRINGING LOVECRAFTIAN INFLUENCE TO MODERN FICTION WITH BRIAN HODGE

1:00 — 2:00 P.M. CST

When painting nightmares on the canvas of the cosmos itself, there’s no safe space, no return to normal, and you can never be the same again.

AND THEN THE MURDERS BEGAN: WRITING GREAT FIRST PARAGRAPHS WITH LUCY A. SNYDER

2:00 — 3:00 P.M. CST

Author Marc Laidlaw recently wrote, “The first line of almost any story can be improved by making sure the second line is, ‘And then the murders began.'” While often true, most writers can’t actually use this technique. In this class, we will examine the first paragraphs of recent award-winning short stories to show why (and how) they work to hook readers. Afterward, we’ll work on improving paragraphs in progress.

PSYCHOLOGY FOR WRITERS: COMING OF AGE WITH S.L. CONEY

3:00 — 4:00 P.M. CST

Discover how to incorporate the important physical and psychological changes that make coming of age stories so powerful.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS WITH BRIAN EVENSON

4:00 — 5:00 P.M. CST

We will look at different ways of doing character description: concise, lengthy, on the run, physical, metaphorical, etc., and consider what each provides.

Moderator.