About Speculative Fiction Writers Association
We are an online group of speculative fiction authors writing science fiction, fantasy, horror, time travel, climate fiction/solar-punk, slipstream, steampunk, weird west, fairy tales, alternate history, dystopian/utopian, cyberpunk, etc. for MG, YA, and adults.
Critique
We meet Tuesdays at 6pm MT/8pm ET on Zoom to discuss current writing topics and critique each other’s work. We are always open to new members of all ability levels.
Community
We have a private Discord server where we discuss current events, publishing opportunities, author conferences, marketing, and publishing issues.
Join Us
Please sit in and audit a session. Meet members and see how our group works. Contact us to schedule a Tuesday that works for you.
Recent Blog Posts
Add Emotional Depth to Characters
Character Symptoms: emotionless, bland, and uninteresting Imagine a critique partner reads your first chapter and says: DIAGNOSIS: Your character is not relatable It’s time for a transplant of personality, humanity, emotion, and agency. Character’s Emotional Reaction to the Plot Characters should show emotion in how they react to situations confronting …
Book Review: Riot Baby
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi is one of the more creative and insightful works of science fiction I have read in years. Rarely has an author so successfully weaved the painful racial history of African Americans in the United States with the science fiction mainstay of superhuman abilities. Supernatural Powers …
Keeping the Words Flowing with Flow State
I attended the recent RMFW Gold Conference looking for ways to increase my creative output. It takes me months to write a 4k-word short story. Unless I become more productive, completing a novel will be Herculean. Nikki Terpilowski’s session on flow state promised a solution, but flow state sounded kind …
What I’ve Learned as a Contest Judge
My critique journey began in college, where I majored in English literature and dissected stories. While school equipped me with tools to better exhume meaning from novels, it could not prepare me for my trek into freelance editing, where I helped emerging writers find their voice, create compelling characters, and …
Creating Characters Readers Love by Kayelle Allen @kayelleallen #AmWriting
In any story, plot is the spine, the various settings are its bones, conflict is its muscle, and characters are its flesh and beauty. Together, they create a framework on which to build a beautiful story full of living, breathing characters. Here are some basic tips on how to make …
Non-Humans as Round Characters
Speculative fiction writers often cast non-human characters in their stories. Those aliens, elves, fairies, and pointy-eared Vulcans are among a large number of possible strange creatures. As they write, spec-fic authors must live with their creations for many months and readers must read about them for many hours. Neither group …