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The Workshop is a unique part of the WisCon weekend that focuses on the needs of writers - novelists and short story writers.
Looking for direction on your feminist SF magnum opus? Ready to break into your first pro market? The WisCon Writers' Workshop is designed to help you prepare a novel or short-fiction manuscript for submission to a pro market. Whether you're looking for an agent, pursuing small-press publication, or just trying to become a better writer, the Workshop can help you polish your manuscript into a lean, mean, smooth-reading machine.
In order to participate in the Workshop you need to purchase a membership to WisCon. Basically, you pay the registration fee for the convention and the workshop is free. Remember when making travel arrangements that the workshop begins at 9 a.m on Friday morning!
In theory, you may submit anything to WisCon that you would submit to a typical science fiction/fantasy/horror (hereinafter abbreviated as "SF") market. Your work need not be feminist SF (though obviously if it is, WisCon's the place to get it critiqued). In actual practice, your work is unlikely to receive an ideal response from your fellow group members if it is misogynist or otherwise offensive in its content or execution. Likewise, your work is unlikey to be well-received if it fails to meet basic standards of professionalism -- i.e., if it's full of typos, is "fanfiction" or someone else's work, etc. Visit some of the Links and Resources listed below to get a sense of what constitutes professionalism in the SF writing world.
Unfortunately, at this time we cannot accommodate poetry for the Writers' Workshop.
Wait! before you send a manuscript: Have you registered for WisCon? If you are not already registered for the con, you will not be eligible to participate in the Writers' Workshop. Go register for the con, then come back and read about submission guidelines.
1. Before submitting your manuscript, please confirm that you are registered for WisCon. (Did I mention that you should register first?)
2. Send your submission by email as an RTF or MS Word attachment (not embedded in the body of the email, thanks) to the WisCon 33 Writers' Workshop Coordinator, at workshop33@wiscon.info. Your submission should include at least two attachments: the manuscript proper, and a cover letter as a separate file. (More details below.) Your submission must be sent in by midnight (EST) on April 1, 2009.
3. You will be submitting an excerpt of your novel consisting of the first chapter or more. Yes, it must be the first part of the novel! Even though chapter 22 might be the best-written chapter in your novel, it's difficult (if not impossible) for people to critique a later chapter of a work they've never seen. Remember, the idea of the WisCon workshop is to help you figure out whether your work can hook an agent or editor, so try to submit the same kind of material that you'd submit to a market.
4. Some additional submission guidelines:
a. Your total manuscript should be no longer than 10,000 words.
b. If your chapters are short, you may submit more than one, but the total should be no longer than 10K. Please submit sequential chapters! That will help us see how your novel pacing and structure works. If your first chapter is longer than 10,000 words, you may submit the whole thing, but your fellow group members are responsible for critting only the first 10K words. (Do NOT submit the whole novel.)
c. To help your fellow group members understand the direction of your novel, you may also submit a synopsis (not part of the 10K word limit). However, the synopsis is an optional read for the members of your group. They will not be expected to critique this portion of your submission, and they can ignore it entirely if they wish.
d. Please include, as a separate file, a cover letter. This will be shared with your pro and the other members of your group. Include in this letter the following: a thumbnail description of your novel (e.g., "Lesbian vampire novel" or "slipstream space opera"), any particular elements of the manuscript that you want your fellow group members to pay attention to during the critique, your preference for pro, a brief statement of your writing credits if any, and any other information that will help us get to know you. No more than one page, please.
5. Submit your manuscript from the email address at which you wish to receive your fellow group members' manuscripts. In other words, do not submit using your 2-mb Hotmail address that is likely to fill up and bounce any largish emails sent to it. If you do not currently have a "large" email account, get a Gmail account.
6. Please follow standard manuscript format guidelines for your submission. (See resources links below for more information.)
1. Before submitting your manuscript, please confirm that you are registered for WisCon. (Did I mention you should register first?)
2. Send your submission by email as an RTF or MS Word attachment (not embedded in the body of the email, thanks) to the WisCon 33 Writers' Workshop Coordinator, at workshop33@wiscon.info. Your submission should include at least two attachments: the manuscript proper, and a cover letter as a separate file. Details below.
3. Your submission must be sent in by midnight (EST) on April 1, 2009.
4. Some additional submission guidelines:
a. Your manuscript should be complete. It's fine if it needs some work, but somewhere in the story there needs to be an ending. Remember, submit to the Workshop the same thing that you would submit to a market.
b. Your manuscript should be no longer than 10,000 words total. If you have a novellette or novella which is longer than 10K words, you may submit the whole thing -- but your fellow group members are responsible for critting only the first 10K words. (Note: If your manuscript is longer than 50,000 words, go look at the Novel Submission Guidelines.)
c. If you want to submit flash stories (under 1000 words), you may submit more than one, but the total can be no longer than 7500 words. (Why the shorter limit? Because it can often be more work to critique multiple short pieces than a single longer piece.)
d. Please include, as a separate file, a cover letter. This will be shared with your pro and the other members of your group. Include in this letter the following: a super-brief description of your story (e.g., "paranormal romance flash" or "sword and sorcery mini-epic"), any particular elements of the manuscript that you want your fellow group members to pay attention to during the critique, your preference for pro, a brief statement of your writing credits if any, and any other information that will help us get to know you. No more than one page, please.
5. Submit your manuscript from the email address at which you wish to receive your fellow group members' manuscripts. In other words, do not submit using your 2-mb Hotmail address that is likely to fill up and bounce any largish emails sent to it. If you do not currently have a "large" email account, get a Gmail account.
6. Please follow standard manuscript format guidelines for your submission. (See resources links below for more information.)
If there is sufficient interest, Catherynne Valente is willing to moderate a poetry section.
1. Before submitting your manuscript, please confirm that you are registered for WisCon. (Did I mention that you should register first?)
2. Send your submission by email as an RTF or MS Word attachment (not embedded in the body of the email, thanks) to theWisCon 33 Writers' Workshop Coordinator, at workshop33@wiscon.info. Your submission should include at least two attachments: the manuscript proper, and a cover letter as a separate file. Details below.
3. Your submission must be sent in by midnight (EST) on April 5, 2009.
4. Some additional submission guidelines:
a. Your poetry manuscript should be complete. It's fine if it needs some work, but somewhere in the poem there needs to be an ending. Remember, submit to the Workshop the same thing that you would submit to a market.
b. Your submission should be no more than 100 lines total. If an individual poem is longer than 100 lines, you may submit the whole thing -- but your fellow group members are responsible for critting only the first 100 lines.
c. If you want to submit shorter poems, you may submit up to 3. The total line count of all your poems combined cannot be greater than 100 lines.
d. Please include, as a separate file, a cover letter. This will be shared with your pro and the other members of your group. Include in this letter the following: a super-brief description of your poem (e.g., "slipstream time travel meditation"), any particular elements of the manuscript that you want your fellow group members to pay attention to during the critique, a brief statement of your writing credits if any, and any other information that will help us get to know you. Please note that you are submitting a poem and would like to beconsidered for the poetry group. No more than one page, please.
5. Submit your manuscript from the email address at which you wish to receive your fellow group members' manuscripts. In other words, do not submit using your 2MB Hotmail address that is likely to fill up and bounce any largish emails sent to it. If you do not currently have a "large" email account, get a Gmail account.
6. Please follow standard manuscript format guidelines for your submission. (See resources links below for more information.)
1. You may make comments in the body of the manuscript. This can be done electronically (I recommend using MS Word's "Track Changes" feature, or something similar) or you may print it out and hand-write comments in the margins. Either way, if you make comments in the manuscript, you must return the manuscript to the author in some fashion after the Workshop.
2. Whether you comment in the body of the manuscript or not, you must provide the author with a summary or overall critique. Ideally this should be typed, but neat handwriting is acceptable as well. Complete sentences are highly recommended.
3. The author may ask you to look at particular elements of the manuscript; this will be noted in the cover letter. At minimum, critiques should focus on "hook", characterization, and plot/pacing. See the critiquing guidelines in the Links and Resources section for more details.
4. Be prepared to give a 5-minute summation of your critique at the Workshop. Again, see Links and Resources for ideas on what to say and how to say it.
The Workshop will typically last about 2 hours, though it may run longer at the discretion of the group leader (the Pro). Typically, the group will begin by critiquing one group member's work. Each group member will offer a 5-minute critique, with the Pro usually going last. At the end of this, the author may offer a 5-minute response. Then the group moves on to the next member's manuscript, and so on. At the end of the session, each workshopper should walk away with a marked-up manuscript (though this can be sent by email), a bruised-but-optimistic ego, several useful new contacts for their professional network, and copious notes on how to improve their work.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) website features many resources on critiquing, standard manuscript preparation, synopsis writing, and more - sfwa.org/writing
Critters is an online writing workshop that contains many articles on how to critique. Also great practice if you've never participated in a crit workshop before. - critters.org
The Online Writing Workshop is another place to get critique practice ahead of WisCon. A small fee is required for participation. - sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com