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Resources Awards Twitter Book Recommendations Craft Essays Career Essays Story Prompts
Useful Resources for F&SF Writers:
- Best Practices for Workshopping: Tips and practices for F&SF writing critique groups, as used in Rambo Academy online writing workshops.
- Broad Universe: Nonprofit international organization of women and men dedicated to celebrating and promoting the work of women writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
- Carl Brandon Society: Nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction.
- Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers Critclub: Community devoted to motivation, support, market news, and critique exchange, aimed at fantasy and science fiction writers.
- File 770: Newsite devoted to fantasy and science fiction, emphasis on the fannish/reader side of things, but lots of industry news and links, plus stuff of general interest.
- How to Submit Short Stories: 8 minute video covering the basics of finding fiction markets and sending stories out.
- Indie Reviewers List: List of reviewers accepting independently-published books.
- Locus Magazine: Online/print magazine focusing on fantasy, horror, and science fiction traditional publishing.
- Model Contracts: These model contracts explain clauses writers may encounter and what they should and shouldn’t sign. Contracts include: agent/author agreement; anthology contract for a piece of fiction; author collaboration agreement; magazine contract for a piece of fiction; and voice actor contract for audio fiction.
- Submission Grinder: Online submission tracker and market news resource. Free to use; please consider donating a little money to them if it’s useful to you.
- Your Cover Letter: A Template. A basic cover letter template that is all you need for submitting F&SF stories.
- Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA): International nonprofit organization for published authors and industry professionals in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and related genres.
- SFWA Services: Services SFWA offers to its members and the F&SF community at large.
- SFWA Webform for determining membership qualifications: Walks you through the process of determining whether or not you are currently qualified for membership. Questions and edge cases should be sent to office AT sfwa.org.
- Turkey City Lexicon: Primer of terms for critiquing that apply to F&SF writing. Will be useful for writing critique groups.
- Writer Beware: SFWA program whose mission is to track, expose, and raise awareness of the prevalence of fraud and other questionable activities in and around the publishing industry.
- Back issues of Science Fiction Studies from DePauw University: Magazine devoted to science fiction, going back to 1973.
Awards Posts for F&SF Writers
- On Award Pimpage
- To Eligibility Post or Not to Eligibility Post?
- Round-up of Awards Posts by F&SF Writers, Editors, and Publishers for 2017
- Round-up of Awards Posts by F&SF Writers, Editors, and Publishers for 2018
- Round-up of Awards Posts by F&SF Writers, Editors, and Publishers for 2019
- Round-up of Awards Posts by F&SF Writers, Editors, and Publishers for 2020
Twitter Lists
- Women in F&SF (artists, writers, editors, publishers, game designers, reviewers, and others)
- Non-Binary Creatives in F&SF (artists, writers, editors, publishers, game designers, reviewers, and others)
- SFWA members (members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)
- Threads with highlights from Rambo Academy Classes
Book Recommendations for F&SF Writers:
- An Octet of Useful Resource Books For Writers
- 10 Books for Writers Focusing on Craft
- Jeff VanderMeer’s Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
- You Should Read This: About Writing by Samuel R. Delany
- You Should Read This: On Writing by Stephen King
- You Should Read This: Surrealist Games
- You Should Read This: The Dictionary. Any Dictionary.
- Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Cynthia Ward and Nisi Shawl
- Creating an Online Presence for Genre Writers
Craft Essays for F&SF Writers
- 3 Strategies for Snaring the Senses
- 3 Things That End A Story Well
- 5 Things To Do In Your First 3 Paragraphs
- 50 Thoughts on Writing from Seanan McGuire
- Active Verbs
- Another Interminable Process Post (working on a novel)
- Basics of Dialogue
- Building Connections
- Chuck Wendig on How to Outline a Novel
- Collaboration And Its Perils
- Creating Emotional Impact Through Characters
- Editing Anthologies and Collections: Arranging Stories
- Examining Your Own Writing Process
- Explaining Things in Fiction
- Foreshadowing and Establishing Conflict
- Have an Impact on the Reader
- Ideas for the Asking
- Looking at Description: Dorothy Dunnett
- Maunderings About Rewriting a Novel
- On Being an “Older” Female Writer
- On Writing: Can You Do It Wrong?
- On Writing Process: Writers Just Effing Write
- Perhaps Useful for People Who Want to Write Faster
- Plotting and Re-plotting Stories
- Popping Pimples on Paragraphs: 5 Things To Watch For
- Revising Through a Single Lens
- Shaping Stories With Characters: How Characters Affect Your Plot
- The Writer’s Toolbox: What Goes In It?
- Transitions and Shifting POV in Fiction
- To Write Short Stories, Read Short Stories
- Using Random Tools Like StumbleUpon for Rewriting
- When A Story Clicks
- When Can You Get Away with Wordy Prose?
- Why Flash Fiction?
- Why Titles Matter
- Writers and Natural Talent
- Writers Just Effing Write
- Writing and the Human Condition
- Writing and Courage
- Writing and Thinking about Frame Stories
- Writing at the Next Level: Getting Inside Your Character’s Head
- Writing in 3D
- Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone and More About That Comfort Zone Thing
- Writing Thoughts: Dwelling On Process
Career-focused Essays for F&SF Writers
- Advice on Writing Mentors
- Applying for Grants and Fellowships (Twitter thread)
- Beginner’s SEO Guide for Indie Creators
- Blogging on Youtube: Some Basics
- Blogging on YouTube: Some Reasons For Writers
- Creating an Online Presence for Your Group: Some Basic Steps
- Facebook Advertising: Is It Worthwhile for Writers?
- For Forensics Students: A Story Breakdown
- How Writers Can use Pinterest
- Let’s Retain ALL the Rights!
- Making the Most of Cons
- Making the Most of GoodReads
- Moderating Panels: Less of a Question, More of a Comment
- Networking with Purpose and Sincerity
- Notes From Michael Stackpole’s “How To Write a Novel in 21 Days”
- Prepping for My First Book Launch Party
- Physical Prepping for Conventions
- Promoting Your Work At Conventions
- Response Times and Professional Magazines
- Self Promotion and Career Building: What I Told the Clarion West 2013 Class
- Seven Tips to Make your Workshop Submission Better
- Social Networking: How Much Is Not Enough?
- Submitting to Problematic Markets
- The Freelancing Life – Pitching An Idea
- Thoughts on the Cons and Pros of Cons and Pros
- Tracking Story Submissions
- Why Podcast? Reasons For Writers
- Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year
- Writing for Theater and Film
Story Prompts for F&SF Writers
- Fabulous Female Protagonists (Pinterest board)
- Story Ideas
- Story Prompt #2 (Blog Post)
- Story Prompt #3 (Blog Post)
- Storytelling Games: Microscope
- Ten Impulses Towards Flash
- Ten Plots taken from other People’s Problems
#sfwapro
