Speculative Fiction Master Class: Readying Your Work for Publication

As in all of my workshops, speculative fiction is defined broadly to include anything from science fiction to fantasy to slipstream to magic realism. Participants are free to submit a short story, an excerpt from a larger work, a script, speculative poetry, a comic, or graphic novel excerpt.

The workshop will consist of ten sessions so as to give each participant the opportunity to workshop their piece twice: once for initial feedback and a second time once revisions have been made. We will begin by having each workshop member introduce themselves and their project, including their intentions. Following these introductions, I will give a brief presentation on different vectors of analysis in evaluating a piece, including:

• story, plot arc, and pacing
  • worldbuildingcharacter, POV, voice, and tonedescriptions and other issues of language and writing qualitytheme and meaning/intention
  • beginnings and endings

In week 1, we will workshop a very short story that participants should read before we meet: Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” In discussing this story, participants will have the opportunity to practice both the workshopping method and vectors of analysis that we will be employing during subsequent sessions.

In weeks 2 through 9, we will workshop two to three submissions at each session. There will also be discussions and exchanges on a topic or topics related to one or more of the vectors of analysis mentioned in the first session. These topics will not be determined in advance, but will flow organically from the submissions discussed that particular week.

The last session will be reserved for an in-depth presentation on maximizing your chances of publication, including a list of resources, and a guest presentation by a speculative fiction publisher. I will also answer any new questions that may have arisen in previous sessions.

*This workshop will take place at the QWF Office (Room 3, 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, Quebec) with up to 2 virtual spots for participants who are unable to attend in-person. By default, all workshop registrations are for in-person spots. If you would like to attend the workshop via Zoom, first email Riley ([email protected]) to see if online spots are still available for this workshop, and then wait for confirmation. Virtual spots are limited and are reserved for people who either live outside Montreal or have a medical condition.

Su J  Sokol is a writer of speculative and interstitial fiction as well as an editor. Xe is the author of three novels: Cycling to Asylum, long-listed for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic and optioned for a film; Run J Run; and Zee, a finalist for the Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Les lignes invisibles, the French translation of Cycling to Asylum, was published in 2022 by VLB Imaginaire. Sokol’s short fiction and essays have appeared in various magazines and anthologies.