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Professional Education

Welcome to the beta of SFWA’s Professional Education program.

The world of creating science fiction and fantasy has changed drastically over the last decade, and it will undoubtedly change even more over the next.  Some changes may seem daunting at first examination, but they can be mastered.  The SFWA Professional Education program is designed to assist members in navigating both tried and true aspects of writing as well as the newer features of the current paradigm.

The program will present classes in a myriad of subjects.  Currently, we envision videos, articles, and PowerPoint-type presentations, but once the program moves beyond the beta stage, we hope to incorporate webinars, self-paced classes, podcasts, and any other format that will benefit our membership.

We are actively seeking classes to include in the program.  Subjects can vary widely with the only stricture being that they offer something of value relating to the writing and publishing of science fiction and fantasy.  Examples might be subjects ranging from self-editing, finding an agent, techniques to minimize typing fatigue, selecting a narrator, conducting rewrites—the scope of possible subjects is limited only by your imagination.  If you believe you have a class you can create that would be of benefit, please contact Jonathan at jonathan.brazee@sfwa.org.

All classes will be offered free-of-charge and to the general public for the time being.  As our class library becomes more robust, some classes may be limited to SFWA members or move to a pay model.

Classes will be initially hosted on this website until we have enough to sustain an interactive commercial site.

Current Class Formats

  1. Articles
    1. Submitted as a Word doc
    2. Email for cover page format
  2. PowerPoint Presentation
    1. Submitted as a PowerPoint or PDF
    2. Email for template
  3. Video
    1. Submit in any standard format
    2. Try to keep each video to 3-7 minutes in length.
    3. Longer classes can be broken into separate parts.

Please email Jonathan to propose your class as well as for more specific guidance.

Seeking Committee Members

If you are interested in serving on the Professional Education Committee, please contact Jonathan.  We’d like to have a wide range of skillsets in all aspects of education and presentation production.

This program is in the beta stage, so we welcome any feedback to help us make this a viable asset for our membership.

Contact Jonathan Brazee

 

Classes

Adapting Writer Prompts by Darek C. Baczewski

This guide is meant to show how you can take generalized writing prompts and lessons and how to apply it to your work and your world (or worlds). Download the Course Adapting Writing Prompts for SciFi-Fantasy-Edited (pdf) About the Author I’ve been a student of the storytelling arts since my father caught me eating the cover […]

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Notes on Conference Planning by Craig Martelle

This class is based on Craig’s experiences putting on two conferences: 20booksto50k Las Vegas in November 2017, and 20booksto50k London in February 2018. Two additional conferences are planned, another in Las Vegas in November 2018 and one in Bali in January 2019. There will also be a writing retreat in Edinburgh in July 2019. While […]

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Crash Course in Creating a Podcast by Eneasz Brodski

This is a quick guide to starting your own fiction podcast. It focuses on simplicity, getting you running quickly, and not duplicating information that’s already out there in a superior form. It is presented in four parts. This course was written by Eneasz Brodski. Table of Contents Bona Fides Tools Source Material Recording Hardware Recording […]

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