February saw a lot of activity for our members. The yearly Writing Journey Anthology has kicked off and is in full swing. This year’s anthology boasts a family-friendly action adventure, and it will be exciting to see how all the stories shape up.
The Writing Journey Anthology is unlike any other anthology many members have been a part of before because ours is more like a workshop. Generally, when authors submit to an anthology, their piece is finished and polished. Ours is a collaborative effort where authors do everything from voting on the theme to several rounds of critiques and editing and even cover design. Check out our previous anthologies here on Amazon.
But that’s not all that happened in February. Several Journey members, including
, , and I attended and were a panel participants at Capricon 44, a yearly science fiction/fantasy convention hosted in Chicago.Romancing the Genre
In fact, even cooler, KV Peck submitted a panel idea to Capricon where we explored romance in many genres and their tropes. We discussed what we each write, genre, and tropes, seeing as we write across many different genres (speculative, LGBTQ+, holiday, sci-fi/fantasy, and more).
First, we did define romance vs a love story (the Romance Genre includes the specific rule of ending on a ‘happily ever after’ or ‘happily for now,’ whereas a love story can be about love and falling in or out of love, generally is a subplot, and does not have to have a happily ever after or for now). We also defined many of the common tropes and how extreme subversion of those (something like marketing a book as a romance and then everyone dying in the end) would anger and lose your audience.
But something that came out of conversing with the attendees was that romance can very much be written and read for wish fulfillment. And that’s such a huge topic. Many times, people read or watch certain media to touch on (not to get too psychological here) unconscious desires. I personally gravitate towards found family tropes, for example, because of having had a tumultuous family relationship and finding more comfort in a family I built.
Lastly, seeing as I was on panels about writing while neurodivergent, I thought it was interesting to discuss nonnormative ways of showing interest and love (whether that is on spectrum or ace or other ways).
It was a wonderful hour to learn more about romance in many forms but also talk about subjects in romance that are often not discussed mainstream.
Publishing and Deep Perspective Workshops Coming Soon!!!
Our next General Writing Journey Meeting, on March 9th, offered both in person in the Chicago Suburbs and on Zoom, will cover “Going from .doc to .epub: A guide for self-publishing” and “Deep Perspective.” Members receive the Zoom link via email.
Not a member of the Writing Journey? It’s free! And we offer many great paths to help you on your personal writing journey. Check out our site here: https://writingjourney.org/
Fill out our Google form here to join before our next meeting! Writing Journey Join
Member Publications
Check out and support some of our local authors. Each month, we’ll feature four books available by our members!