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!
Narrativity 2025: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night is only THREE months away. Queue panic. There’s so much left still to do. Queue excitement. We cannot wait to see all of you and talk storytelling again. Below, you’ll find the panel list for this year’s con. Panelists and exact scheduling still to be determined. Would you like to be on one of the panels? Would you like to be the moderator of one of the panels? Reach out using the link below.
Biology Solves Everything Writing science fiction? No matter what issue you’re having, whether its how to get the faster than light drive back online, why the ill-treated crew haven’t mutinied, or figuring out what “Shaka, when the walls fell” means, our panelists are here to tell you how biology can solve everything.
BookTok, BookTube, and the Rise of Accessible Reviews (and Reviewers as Authors) No matter the genre of book you like, you can find someone on social media reviewing books you have read or might want to read. These reviewers have been credited with turning books into best sellers (almost like Oprah used to do) and have sometimes used their fame and audience to get book deals themselves. Have you picked up a book because you saw a review of it? Have you avoided a book because you saw a review of it? And how does this new culture of reviewers without “credentials” serve us as consumers and creators of story?
How to Use Tropes to Good Effect There are no new stories, just new ways to tell them. Pride & Prejudice is an enimies to lovers, unequal social class, secret cinammon roll hero love story with an element of forced proximity and a love triangle, and yet we keep coming back to it, with new movies or zombie versions added every few years. How do we channel our inner Austen and use tropes from our genre (or from outside our genre) and create something that is more than its parts?
Into the Weeds You can’t see where you’re going. You stepped off the path of your outline/character description/style/genre. Disaster…or a chance to surprise yourself, do things you didn’t think you could, have a storytelling adventure?
Leveling Up You’ve got the basics down. You can write to a publishable standard. How do you keep growing as a writer? What does the next level even look like, anyway?
Magic Solves Everything Writing fantasy? No matter what issue you’re having, whether its how to get your characters out of the dungeon they’re imprisoned in, why the henchman doesn’t kill the big bad the hundredth time they insult their mother, or what is the airspeed of an unladen swallow, our panelists are here to tell you how magic can solve everything.
Politics/Government Systems as Worldbuilding Whether your fantasy novel is all about political intrigue or your space-faring explorers are off at the edge of the known universe, the politics and governmental systems matter. Let’s talk about how the politics of the world(s) your characaters live in can bring your story to life, whether your characters are fighting the empire, saving the long lost princess, or just trying to keep their loved ones safe.
Quilting the Story You’ve done the outline, written a bunch of scenes, but right now, they’re like a bunch a quilting squares. You know they all go together, but you’re not quite sure how, they need to be stitched together, be given a backing and filler. How do you go from squares to a finished quilt?
Very Short Stories & Microfiction: What do you need to tell a story? Can you tell an effective story in 300 words or less? Are there ideas this form lends itself to exploring better than longer ones? Or is it never more than a teaser, something to draw the reader in, but never quite fullfilling?
What Does an Author OweTheir Readers? Robert Jordan managed to complete The Wheel of Time from beyond the grave while George RR Martin fans live in fear the author will die before finishing Game of Thrones. Steven Brust is about to finish a 17 book series that has taken over 40 years to write, while Patrick Rothfuss can’t seem to write a third Kingkiller novel in the almost 20 years since his first was published because the world he started writing isn’t one he wants to continue in. What do authors owe their readers when it comes to finishing the stories they have started? Does the size of the audience matter? What about the medium of the ending? Come argue with us about what, as an audience member, you deserve, and what, as an author, you owe to yourself and everyone else.
When the Process Breaks What to do when what you always do suddenly doesn’t work.
Writing with Fear FDR said “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” Sometimes our writing requires courage.
And of course, we’ll have The Different Panel. When a panel goes (too far) off-topic, we’ll rein it back in with “That’s a different panel!” But those digressions aren’t wasted; we’ll keep a list, and at the end of the con, pick the best one for our final discussion. Panelists for The Different Panel will be chosen at the con after the topic’s selected.
Evening Programming
Help a fellow storyteller out Come back after dinner to help a fellow storyteller out, or to get help yourself. Folks are encouraged to bring their current storytelling problems for a group brainstorming and problem solving session.
“It was a dark & stormy night…” An evening of storytelling games using this year’s theme as our jumping off point.
Music Circle
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.