In his guest lecture at Odyssey 2003, Bruce Holland Rogers discussed narrative theory and the importance of structure. Structure can provide a story with unity and can give an author direction. In this podcast, Bruce explains his own use of structure and provides a fascinating list of various structures that Read more
At Odyssey 2005, Allen M. Steele lectured on building a world’s environment. In this excerpt from his lecture, Allen takes writers through the process of creating a believable, realistic world, using the setting from his “Coyote” novels as an example. He explains how to use scientific discoveries as a basis Read more
In their guest lecture at Odyssey 2008, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman discussed the many differences between writing a novel and writing a short story. In this podcast, Delia and Ellen explore how the opening of a novel differs from the opening of a short story. What must the beginning Read more
In her guest lecture at Odyssey 2008, literary agent Jenny Rappaport provided so much useful information that we’ve chosen to make a second excerpt from her talk available as another podcast (for her first excerpt, see Podcast #23). In this podcast, Jenny explains how to write a strong query letter. Read more
Podcast #23 is an excerpt from literary agent Jenny Rappaport’s lecture at Odyssey 2008. In her lecture, Jenny gave her assessment of the publishing industry and explained how an author can break into publishing, navigate the changing marketplace, and survive. In this podcast, she explains step-by-step how to get an Read more
Podcast #22 is an excerpt from a lecture by award-winning author Nancy Kress, who served as writer-in-residence at the 2008 Odyssey workshop.ย Nancy delivered a week of amazing lectures, provided in-depth feedback on student manuscripts, and met privately with students.ย In this podcast, Nancy discusses writing in scenes, the concept that turned Read more
An excerpt from the lecture award-winning author Melissa Scott gave at Odyssey in the summer of 2006 on the various ways you can show your fantasy or science-fiction world to the reader without stopping the story to explain.
An excerpt from the lecture James Maxey gave at Odyssey in the summer of 2008 on Writing Strong Openings.
An excerpt from the lecture Barry B. Longyear gave at Odyssey in the summer of 2008 on Revision and Writing Your Own Unique Stories.
An excerpt from the lecture Craig Shaw Gardner gave at Odyssey in the summer of 2008 on Humor in Speculative Fiction.