Video: Principles for Pantsers

This is the workshop I give every couple of years; I will not be giving it in 2023. There will be two separate one section.

This seven week workshop focuses on the basics of writing speculative fiction short stories, including figuring out and implementing your plot, creating believable and engaging characters, effective world-building, what to do with a story once it’s finished, dealing with editors and markets, and other necessities. Students will have the opportunity to workshop at least one story over the course of the class and will also be writing and sharing weekly writing assignments.

Sessions will be recorded for students and available three days after the live session. You will also have access to the Rambo Academy Discord server and discussion/events/resources there.

Section two: Tuesday 6-8 PM Eastern time September 6, September 13, September 20, September 27, October 4, October 11, October 18.

Cost is $499 for seven sessions. Each session runs two to two and a half hours. All sessions are recorded for student use only. To register, mail me at cat@kittywumpus.net and indicate which section you are applying for and how you would like to pay (Paypal, Venmo, check, etc.) There are three free scholarships in each section. Deadline for applying for a scholarship is August 19.

Testimonials

• • Taking a workshop class with Cat was a great experience. Highly recommended! – Fred Coppersmith
  • Every week is like a shot in the arm of pure encouragement & enthusiasm. -Liz Neering
  • Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah”¦.thanks so much. -K. Richardson
  • Cat is a fun tutor with plenty of experience as both a fiction writer and a professional editor. She has plenty of sound, practical advice to offer, and the writing exercises are enjoyable. A course like this allows you to meet other writers of varying levels of experience and talent, which is a very good way of finding out what you are good at and where your skills need work. It also gives you a bunch of potential writing buddies, which can be very valuable. -Cheryl Morgan
  • Cat Rambo’s classes are both entertaining and edifying. If you are an aspiring writer or editor do yourself a favor and sign up! -Stefan Milićević

Some of the stories produced during this class:
Bo Balder, “The Doll Is Dead”, Penumbra
Nicholas Lee Huff, “Smitten“, Every Day Fiction
Jamie Lackey, “Moving Past Butterfly“, Bastion
Jamie Lackey, “The Path to Butterfly,” Lakeside Circus
Sunil Patel, “Sally the Psychic Alligator“, Fireside Fiction
Frances Rowat, “Palimpsest“, The Sockdolager

So let me start out by saying I screwed up, and in a way that I should have known better than to do. The problem is that the Wayward Wormhole intensive writing workshop that I’m hosting is in one way absolutely not up to standard, and that is its lack of accessibility. This is particularly unacceptable given that I have called out inaccessible venues in the past.

I’ve also called out economically inaccessible stuff, and yet this workshop, unlike the other school efforts, does not have guaranteed scholarships in place to help make the workshop cost easier on anyone, although we’ve structured fees to try to fund at least two scholarships this year.

I made this poor choice in part because ““ while this is not an excuse ““ 2022 was the year of the biggest changes of my life (the end of a 20+ year partnership and a cross-country move) and I just let the wheeeeee castle vibe carry me along past any thoughts other than how do I make spending my birthday in a Spanish castle a reality? And when the voices in my head stopped saying that and one in the back nervously raised its hand and said hey what about accessibility, I told myself we’d addressed that by making sure there was a virtual version.

Except now that I’ve thought about it, that’s not enough, because the virtual version lacks some features that the on-location includes. So I apologize to the community for setting a bad example. I apologize to my teachers for having involved them in this ethical lapse. And I apologize, abjectly, to my students for having let them down in this regard.

Given that I have already made a substantial down payment that is nonrefundable and which I can’t afford to lose, what are the material steps I can do to show I understand I fucked up and mean to make it right?

1. The first is already done. The location we have for next year is fully accessible physically, and that is a requirement for all future locations.
2. The second is that we will be providing a yearly full scholarship in memory of Vonda N. McIntyre.
3. The third is that a quarter of my profits from this year’s workshop will be donated to a charity that advances accessibility issues, like the American Association of People with Disabilities. (I want to research the best choice here.)
4. The fourth is that I have learned from it and, as the friend I was talking to about it put it, gained a point in humility, so I can do better going forward and not let whee castle override the let’s look this over before agreeing notion.

So. There you have it.

Best,
Cat