Archive for the ‘SFWA Blog’ Category

Introduction to Game Writing and Playtesting

by John Dale Beety Editor’s note: This is the first installment in our five-part series Playtesting Game Narratives, curated by SFWA’s Game Writing Committee. In science fiction and fantasy (SFF) terms, game writing is exactly what it sounds like: writing for games. Calling oneself a game writer, however, is akin to declaring oneself a scientist. […]

Game Writing with Text Adventure Games

by Misha Grifka Wander When I teach video game analysis to college students, I sometimes tell them that they’re going to make their own games—and their eyes glaze over in panic, thinking of the intense production requirements of a video game: music, voice acting, animation, design, and so on. If you’ve ever been curious about […]

In Memoriam: M. J. Engh

M. J. Engh (26 January 1933 – 11 July 2024), also writing as Jane Beauclerk and Mary Jane Engh, was a librarian, scholar, teacher, editor and writer. She wrote short fiction, non-fiction, and speculative novels, including 1976’s Arslan, later released as A Wind from Bukhara. Engh was honored by SFWA in 2009 with the title […]

Dance the Exotic Dance for Me!

by Yoon Ha Lee When I was a kid in the 1980s and 1990s, I adored classical mythology, Arthurian mythology, the Cthulhu mythos. I was the weirdo who holed up in the library reading Tacitus, Plato, and Sylvia Plath for fun. I had ambitions of writing science fiction and fantasy. Yet the science fiction and […]

A Brief History of SFWA: The Beginning (Part 2)

by Michael Capobianco Editor’s note: This piece is the second in a two-part overview of the first year of SFWA, curated by a member of the organization’s History Committee. Part 1 is available here. Damon Knight was now president of SFWA, Editor/Writer/Publisher of the Bulletin, and chair of a one-person Contracts Committee/Griefcom.  It was at […]

SFWA Market Report For August

Welcome to the August edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any venue in this report does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. Those markets included on this list pay at least $0.08/word USD in at least one category of fiction. This compilation is not exhaustive of all publication opportunities that pay […]

A Brief History of SFWA: The Beginning (Part 1)

by Michael Capobianco Editor’s note: This piece is the first in a two-part overview of the first year of SFWA, curated by a member of the organization’s History Committee. Part 2 is available here. On January 15, 1965, Damon Knight, a well-known author, critic, and co-founder of the Milford Conference writer’s workshop, sent an announcement […]

Whoops, I Wrote a Story: How to Make App Addictions Work for Your Writing

by Marie Croke Editor’s note: This piece is part of an occasional series titled Writing by Other Means, in which authors share personal experiences and industry intel around different production contexts and writing tools. Contributions will be published as often as distinct perspectives emerge. From phones and tablets to computers, we all tend to fall […]