Writers’ Workshop 
The Fairwood Writers & Norwescon 33 invite you to participate in the annual genre fiction writing workshop at Norwescon 33 to be held April 1-4, 2010.  For the 2010 convention, we will be accepting electronic submissions of short stories and novel excerpts in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres.

Guidelines for the Norwescon Writers' Workshop
The Fairwood Writers are pleased to sponsor the writing workshop for Norwescon 33 in 2010. We accept both short stories and novel excerpts to be critiqued by professional writers during Norwescon 33 in April, 2010, according to the guidelines below. 

What We Accept
The Fairwood Writers will accept electronic submissions of short stories or novel excerpts in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. 

For 2010, we will accept up to two pieces per author, totaling no more than 20,000 words. 

For 2010, we will accept entries on a two-tier deadline. Please see the section titled 'Deadline' below for dates. 

Cover Letter Requirements
Along with your submission, you must include a brief cover letter. The cover letter should include: 

Contact information: your name, email address, street address, and phone number where we can reach you, if necessary 

Attendance: the days you plan to attend the convention and are available for critique 

Submission information: title, genre, and format (short or novel excerpt) of your piece(s).  Please let us know if your manuscript is intended for a YA audience. 

Critique preference: for each piece; individual critique session, Round-Robin session, or no preference 

Brief biography for the workshop pamphlet: include your writing goals, writing experience, and workshop experience (we may edit anything over 150 words, so show us your editing skills by keeping this short!) 

Survey information: To better help us plan, please answer the following questions: 

Are you currently submitting your work to professional, paying genre markets?  

Do you consider yourself to be writing at a beginning, intermediate, or advanced level at this time? 

The convention rooms we are usually assigned require participants to navigate a short flight of steps (about 4).  Please let us know if you would have difficulty navigating the steps, or otherwise think you might have a need for special accommodations in order to participate. 

And last but not least, just to help us in creating our workshop pamphlet for this year: are you male or female? 

Short Fiction
Short fiction must be complete. 

Short fiction must be no longer than 10,000 words per piece submitted for individual critique; or no more than 7,000 words if the piece is being submitted for round-robin critique. 

We will accept up to two works of short fiction. 

Along with your submission, please include a brief cover letter (see details above). The cover letter does not count toward the 10,000 word limit. 

Novel Excerpts
Novels must be submitted only in part. 

We will accept up to the first three chapters, within our maximum length (see below). 

Along with your chapter(s), please submit an outline or synopsis of the entire novel, totaling no more than 1,000 words. You can find a number of excellent articles about synopsis writing on the Web, including:  

 Hunting for an Agent (with Sample Synopsis) 

 The Synopsis   

 The Dreaded (NOT!) Synopsis   

 The Novel Synopsis - Just What Is It? 

The entire submission, including chapters and outline or synopsis, must total no more than 10,000 words. 

Along with your submission, please include a brief cover letter (see details above). The cover letter does not count toward the 10,000 word limit. 

Please note that novel excerpts are not eligible for round robin sessions. 

How Much We Will Accept
We will accept no more than two pieces per writer, no more than one of which may be a novel excerpt, together totaling no more than 20,000 words. 

In the event that the workshop fills before the deadline, we will reserve the right to reduce the number of long submissions accepted into the workshop, or the total number of manuscripts per writer, so that more writers may be included in the workshop.  

Manuscript Format
We will accept manuscripts in .doc, .rtf, and .txt formats. 

All submissions must be in proper manuscript format. Please note, since manuscript format is an important part of the process of submitting fiction to markets, your manuscript format will be considered when your story is read for the workshop. You can find excellent examples of proper manuscript format online at http://www.sfwa.org/writing/  under the heading "Manuscript Preparation." 

General format should include:

1-inch margins on all sides

Type must be double-spaced

Font no smaller than 12-point size (Courier or Courier New preferred)

Use underlining instead of italics

Do not use boldface 

First page must include:

Author's name and address in upper left corner

Approximate word count in upper right corner

Story title and byline (start halfway down page)

Story starts double-spaced (at least) under byline 

Upper right corner of second page (and all following pages) must include:

Story title (shortened, if necessary)

Author's last name

Page number 

How the Workshop Works
All manuscripts submitted on time will be scheduled for individual critique sessions, unless the author requests the "round-robin" critique option. Round-robin sessions are available only for short-story submissions. 

Individual Sessions
In individual critique sessions, workshop participants meet with up to four “pros” who have read their manuscript. Participants receive feedback from each pro. Novel excerpts may be critiqued in the individual session format only. 

Round-Robin Sessions
In a round-robin critique session, two to three workshop participants meet with up to four “pros.” In this session, each story has been read by all other participants (both workshop participants and pros). Workshop participants receive feedback from both their peers and pros, and offer critique to their peers. 

Only short stories of 7,000 words or less may be submitted for round-robin critiquing.

Participants who choose round-robin sessions may find useful information for composing a critique online at http://www.sfwa.org/writing/ under the heading "Critiquing.”  

How to Submit 
E-mail your cover letter and manuscript submission(s) to the workshop at: submissions  at norwescon dot org

NOTE: This address is for submissions ONLY. 

We reserve the right to reject submissions which are clearly outside the scope of the workshop due to genre, quality, length, or extreme objectionable content. 

Deadline

The regular deadline for submissions is December 20, 2009. All submissions following these guidelines which are submitted by midnight on December 20 will be included in the workshop.  In recent years, the workshop has run at full capacity; we strongly suggest submitting by the regular deadline. 

The late entry deadline for submissions is December 31, 2009. Submissions following the guidelines which are submitted after December 20 but by midnight on December 31 will be included in the workshop only if space permits.   

We will not accept submissions to the workshop after December 31, 2009. 

Questions?
E-mail your questions or comments to us at: writersworkshop at norwescon dot org

The Fairwood Writers, and all writers from the Con who participate in the workshop, look forward to reading your stories and meeting you at Norwescon!