Narrativity offers a single track of programming, so ideas can carry through from one panel to the next and the conversation continues all weekend — and our panels are participatory events, so the audience is as much a part of the conversation as the panelists. Panels run from 11:00 am Friday through about 6:00 pm Sunday. In the evenings, we’ll have all the function space available for music, conversations, games, or other activities that take your fancy. If you’d like to organize something specific, let us know!

Welcome to programming planning for Narrativity 2026: Six Impossible Things! Want to know what would make my task impossible? Programming this con without your feedback. Below you’ll see some of the ideas we have for this year’s programming. Let me know what panels you would be interested in attending. And just as importantly, let me know what panels you would be interested in being on. You can email me directly, comment on our Facebook group, or in the Discord.
Oh, and do you have an idea for what could be an amazing panel and don’t see it here? Let me know that, too.
As we get things narrowed down, this page will be updated with more complete descriptions of the ideas below. Come back often! -Erin Shanendoah

Worldbuilding
Creating conflict via lack of understanding
Idioms
Postal Service
Drinking culture
Cost

… Solves Everything
Signalling the reader
Laws of YOUR universe

Tools
How do the rules of poetry lend themselves to storytelling
Cutting as a tool
Beats & dramatic structure
Using storytelling games to tell your story
High-level creativity – finding the tools to create
Give yourself permission to write the worst possible slop you can write
Theories of storytelling (heros journey, heroines journey, carrier bag, etc)
Oral storytelling
Brainstorming for one – How to ask the right questions, generate solutions, and get yourself unstuck when you don’t have anyone else to bounce ideas off of. (This is the latest iteration of “teach Liz how to do plot”, as I currently suspect that my plot problem may really be a brainstorming problem.)
Shielding the Spark, Fanning the Flame – You can’t always dive into working on a story when the initial idea strikes (though it’s nice work if you can get it). What are your tricks for keeping the excitement of a new idea alive when it has to wait on the day job, real life, other works in progress, etc.?

Craft
Advice from new writers
Does hard writing make hard reading
POV/Tense in a story
Middles (HELP)
What’s this thing Liz keeps talking about that is obviously not called “Plot”
How do you get the audience to trust you?
Is Theme a Thematic Question
When NOT to write
How to make your setting real

The Author
There’s no such thing as lanes
How to love your own work in public
how author worldview impacts reader experpience
Does the author get to speak?
Is it possible for the author to be too present in the work
How do I tell if I am lying in my art
This is what you call feminism? – Politics in storytelling
Writing an effective author bio

The Reader
How to give effective feedback
Industry vs Audience: Who are we writing for?
Writing to Market: Yes, No, and How
How do we choose what to read
What does the reader owe the author

The Characters
Writing unsympathetic protagonists: How far will you go – Serial killers, cannibals, actual demons. What are the perils — and pleasures — of writing a character that some would consider beyond the pale? Where do you draw the line between pushing boundaries and pushing away your audience?
Where do your characters come from
How do you get your characters to talk to you?

Meta
Location, Location, Location – how where you are feeds, starves, and otherwise influences your writing
Non-linear storytelling – adding layers
prequels – the good, the bad, and the ugly
What does the author owe the story vs what does the author owe a series
Collaboration: Why Do It? And Why Not?
Collaboration between a plotter & a pantser – can it work
Pre-Joycian Fellowship vs Escapism: Daggers Drawn
Translator as “author” – How the choices of a translator impact the story
Stories about storytelling/storytellers
Is scifi just other genres in a trench coat
Managing mutliple writing projects
Genre jumping
Picking what to read based on influencing/not influencing what you’re writing
Writing for writers, writing for readers (can we Bugs Bunny it)

Have your own idea for a panel next year? Want to be a panelist? Please contact our Paragon of Programming, Erin Shanendoah, and let her know what you’re interested in.