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!

Panels for Narrativity 2027 are currently under development. How do we develop the program, you might ask? Well, we turn it right around and ask you, our members. Below is our preliminary list of panel ideas. See something you’re interested in? Let us know. See something you want to be on the panel for, let us know. Got an idea you’d like to see included? Please contact our Paragon of Programming, Erin Shanendoah, and let her know what you have in mind.

Interested in what the programming has looked like in previous years?  Check out the History pages, which include panel listings for all previous Narrativities. And if you see something there you wish you’d been part of, it’s okay to suggest a revisit of a previous panel. As the engineering professor said about his final exam, the questions may stay the same, but the answers change from year to year!

 

Worldbuilding
Creating conflict via lack of cultural understanding
Idioms as worldbuilding
“Language grows and evolves, and writers often push it — off a cliff? Whether it’s neologisms or word-forms that don’t exist but should, what does a creative approach to vocabulary and usage bring to our stories? Is there a point where poetic license morphs into gibberish? How slithy does a tove have to be before you’ll gyre along with it?”
Postal Service
Drinking culture to tell your story
Crime & Punishment
Religion

… Solves Everything
Building audience trust
Laws of YOUR universe
Point of View (update to the 2019 panel)
Writing in “Reader Head” (update to the 2021 panel)

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)
Drafting/Revision: different stages or a continuum
How do you set yourself up to not get stuck
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.?
Self-care for the writer
Are there genre-specific tools for writing

Craft
Advice from new writers
Does hard writing make hard reading? Some writing feels inspired, or it practically writes itself. Other times…. not so much. Do the hard slogs still produce something we can be proud of, that readers will appreciate?
POV/Tense in a story
Middles (HELP)
What’s this thing Liz keeps talking about that is obviously not called “Plot” (sequel to the 2021 panel)
How to be in the murderer’s head without revealing the murder OR how to have the reader see the murder but still be interested in watching the characters solve the mystery
Is Theme a Thematic Question
When NOT to write
Building trust over a body of work
Extending the series – You’ve tied up all the loose ends. The story you were telling is done. But your editor/publisher/audience wants more! Do your main characters have a new adventure? Do you skip a generation? Find a tangential character to focus on? How do you give the audience what they want without messing up your original story?
Are there stories that lend themselves better to certain POVs
“Setting: When, Where, and How”. Do you start a story by providing a description of place? Or do you start with descriptions of actions and conversations? Does Setting matter? What, if anything, can it contribute to storytelling? How can Setting be more than a merely literal description of what is where? What about the poetry of Setting, as in or ? Is it important to transport readers? Are there exercises for writing different types of Setting?
“Do the Next Write Thing” — Forging on when you’ve lost your inspiration, your mentor, or your way.
How to start (update to the 2019 panel)

The Characters
Are there truly any unsympathetic main characters?
Where do your characters come from?
How do you get your characters to talk to you?

The Author
“There’s no such thing as lanes – Discuss why we think it’s important to have no prior restrictions on ideas or their expression, and what benefits we think art gains from exploring uncomfortable and even alarming territory. ”
How to love your own work in public
How author worldview impacts reader experpience
Does the author get to speak?
Can you write a book that you are not present in at all
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 Aging Writer” – All-nighters leave you wrecked the next day. Your eyes can’t take long sessions staring at the computer screen. And what the hell is the word for that…? Tips, tricks, and sympathy for continuing to write while less-young. (And for younger writers to mitigate the ravages of time. It gets us all in the end….)
Self-care for the writer
How do you keep growing (update to the 2019 panel)

The Reader
Coming into books with our own expectations
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
Finding your readers
Building an audience as a multi-genre writer

Meta
Learn the rules, then break them (update to the 2019 panel)
Is all transhumanist fiction science fiction?
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
Managing multiple writing projects
Picking what to read based on influencing/not influencing what you’re writing
Writing for writers, writing for readers (can we Bugs Bunny it)
The unexpected, odd ways our daimons communicate with us. In The Princess and Curdie(?), by George MacDonald, Curdie asks the magical godmother if she would give him a sign by which he could recognize her, no matter what her guise might be. She refuses, answering, “Then you would only recognize the sign, not me,” or words to that effect. How do we recognize the origin of a prompt or an alert?
“Are We Having Fun Yet?” What are the current and persistent themes, memes, and stories that seem to really want exploration and expression? What are the spirits of this age? Which characters present themselves and say, “”Tell my story!””? Are we riding any particular trends? What intrigues us about currently popular types and tropes, and have we anything original to add? Or do we see old ideas returning in fresh guises?