Writers' Workshop
UPDATED
By Sandra Saidak,
writers09@baycon.org
Why the BayCon Writers' Workshop?
To give writers assistance in becoming published authors.
What is the BayCon Writers' Workshop?
It is an opportunity for writers to have professional writers
critique their work based on story structure, plot, style and character
development. It is conducted quietly in a small room with a limited
group — the writers who have submitted work, the three
professionals who have critiqued the work, one of whom will act as a
moderator who makes sure the group stays on task and on time. This is
not a competition or a bragging contest. Participants must be at least
18 years old, and able to accept criticism in a mature manner.
Submission criteria:
- Stories must be either Science Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic, Horror, or
have a fantastic element of some kind.
- All submissions must be emailed to
writers09@baycon.org no
later than April 15, 2009.
- Manuscript submissions can have up to 7,500 words. Manuscripts
should conform to professional submissions standards.
- IF you do not receive an email stating your manuscript was
received, then you will need to resend it as something went
astray. BayCon can not be responsible for lost or
misdirected e-mail resulting from circumstances beyond our
control.
- Longer pieces or novels must include a summary with a writing sample
(the beginning is preferred). The summary counts as part of the 7,500
words.
- Authors must be pre-registered BayCon 2009 members. Manuscripts must
be accompanied by your BayCon 2009 membership number or payment of an
attending membership. IF there is a problem with this, we will
assist.
- If the piece of writing is a collaborative effort, then the team
will be treated as "one author." To put it another way, you
will be given the same total amount of time as an individual author. All
present must have a BayCon 2009 membership to be present at the
workshop.
- Manuscripts must be emailed to
writers09@baycon.org.
Your manuscript must be in either Adobe Acrobat PDF or Microsoft Word
Format. We will not be accepting hardcopies. This allows us to quickly
email our professional writers, and saves us the cost of mailing the
manuscripts. This makes the Workshop FREE OF COST!!
- We will commit to finding panelists and panels for the first 15
manuscripts. After that, manuscripts go on a waiting list as we try to
put together additional panels or find someway to accommodate the
additional manuscripts. Manuscripts are first come, first served.
- If for some reason, you need technical assistance, please let us
know soonest at
writers09@baycon.org so
that we might help. My husband will happily assist you in converting
your manuscript to an approved format. I do writing. He does computers.
Our children will either learn to take care of the house or we will turn
Grandma loose on them.
- This year we would like to try something new. To do this, we need
four volunteers. Two professionals, and two as writers for a Writers'
Group done as a workshop where people can see and hear how such a group
conducts itself. Panelists need to be gentle and writers need to be
tough. This is a separate event and does NOT count towards the regular
workshops.
- We are also looking for three to five volunteers for an Iron Editors
Panel that we are thinking of. Volunteers must be comfortable with
"thinking out loud" as they quickly and publically edit a one
to two page submission from audience members.
In the event we cannot get enough panelists or manuscripts we will
let loose our boffered minions. Even now they are practicing extra hard
on sneaking up behind people unnoticed. Frankly, it's rather hard on the
mailman. Please, do NOT make us turn them loose.....
Deadlines are much closer than they appear –we'll need your
work by April 15th, 2009!
— Sandy Saidak aka Thing 1, Adventurer Extraordinnaire, BayCon
Writers' Workshop
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Artistic
Solutions, Inc.
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Inc.
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