January/February Events
Capricon, Writing a Short Story and Emerging Author Expo
January is coming to a close, 2025 is off and racing… and our Writing Journey is kicking off a new year of events.
We spent January formulating new ideas and plans based on what our members were looking for. For example, we’ll start a new corner of this newsletter called Crafty Readers, where once a month, members plan to get together, share what they are currently reading, and (if they want) bring a craft to work on. I, personally, look forward to that starting up in February.
How to Write a Short Story
February seriously kicks off the Writing Journey yearly short story anthology (with a some flash fiction and poetry as well. FYI, there is still time to join both the Journey and the Anthology for those who are interested!).
Short stories present a unique challenge, particularly if you, as a writer, primarily write longer form fiction like novels or novellas. Short stories encompass a wide range, from 1,000-10,000 words. Writing a 1,000 word short story is far different than writing one that is 10,000 words, as well.
But what makes writing a short story different? Well, size matters. Every word in a short story needs to be carefully thought out, especially when working with shorter limits (and when submitting short stories to publications there tends to be hard rules on how long a piece can be). The number of characters can also impact how long your story might be.
How? Well, more characters, means more: dialogue, interactions, introductions, and the potential for accidental sub-plots.
This is really just a few things we’ll be touching on during the February meeting. If you’re interested in learning more about writing short stories, join us Saturday, February 8th at noon CST. Member of the Journey will receive the Zoom link via email.
Let Your Geek Flag Fly! - Capricon 45
Several in our writing community are excited to be panelists at Capricon 45 in downtown Chicago Februray 6-9th, 2025. Capricon is a 4 day science fiction convention, in the classic style of conventions. There is a crazy amount of panel and activities to join in on, round tables and more. It will be a weekend (long weekend that is) science fiction, fantasy, books, anime/manga talk and more.
Glen Ellyn Emerging Author Expo
This weekend, January 25th from 1-4pm several of our members (include
, , and ) will be part of 50 authors at the first Emerging Author Expo. This event is free and located at the Glen Ellyn Library. We’ll post some pictures, but please join us if you are local to the Writing Journey! For more information, see this Glen Ellyn Library post!We’re excited to share more from these events soon!