We always love to help our programme participants and guests share their knowledge with you, and we’ve got a great line-up of workshops for you again this year! Whether you’re a writer or worldbuilder or crafter or just curious, we have something for you!
All workshops last for about an hour. Start times are Irish Summer time (UTC+1).
Sign-ups (where required) open on Sunday 27th September; sign up by the evening before, or check at the info desk or on Discord before the start time to see if there are still spaces available.
Saturday
Workshop: Developmental Editing for Writers
10:00, Tucana room (in-person)
All writers need to be editors at some point. In this workshop, Siobhán Murphy covers some of the basics of development editing, and gives suggestions and ideas for assessing for plot, structure, pace, character and relationship development and more. Suitable for beginners or old hands who want a refresher. Come with a project in mind, or use your imagination on the day.
Maximum of 16 participants. Sign up online by 10pm Friday 2nd October (link available on Sunday 27th September) or check at the info desk on Saturday before the start time to find out if there are still spaces available.
Workshop: Story Matrices: Using History to Build Fantasy Worlds
10:00, Zoom (online)
Learn the cultural brickwork method of using history to build the right kind of world for your novel in this workshop with Gillian Polack. The Middle Ages will provide a baseline, but other facets of history will be brought into play. Learn how different types of worldbuilding work for different kinds of story and how you can set up the world for the precise story you want to write.
No sign-up required.
Workshop: Found Footage Formats
13:00, Tucana room (in-person)
From epistolary letters, audio transcripts to ingredients written in the back of a cereal box, found format stories can be a really unique way to tell a tale. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of writing such formats, give examples, and even end up with a short story of our own.
Maximum of 16 participants. Sign up online by 10pm Friday 2nd October (link available on Sunday 27th September) or check at the info desk on Saturday before the start time to find out if there are still spaces available.
Workshop: Get Started in Comics
16:00, Tucana room (in-person)
There’s no one path in comics that fits all, but the building blocks are all the same. Join comic writer and award-winning editor Paul Carroll in an hour-long journey to demystify the process of writing comics and getting a start in the industry.
No sign-up required.
Workshop: Unlock Your Inner Poet
17:30, Zoom (online)
Join us in a generative workshop for any level of poet, whether your last poem was a school assignment or a Pushcart nominee. We’ll play a few word games to get the imagination clicking, turn the results into poetic energy and use our MadLibs skills to produce a brand-new poem. There’ll be time to share (optionally, of course) snippets and drafts as we encourage one another along.
No sign-up required.
Sunday
Workshop: Representation in Wikipedia – Editing the Gaps in Genre Fiction
10:00, Tucana room (in-person)
Wikipedia is the encyclopedia literally everyone uses, but its coverage has receipts-backed gaps — women, LGBTQ+ folks, people of colour, and smaller-language communities are all under-represented, and SFF is no exception. We’ll dig into why that happens and how it actually gets fixed, then you’ll get hands-on and make a real edit to an SFF-related Wikipedia article on the day. Zero experience required — just bring a laptop or phone or just your interest.
Maximum of 12 participants. Sign up online by 8pm Saturday 3rd October (link available on Sunday 27th September) or check at the info desk on Sunday before the start time to find out if there are still spaces available..
Workshop: Beat Procrastination and Write that Book!
11:30, Tucana room (in-person)
Are you struggling to write the first draft of your novel? Are you researching endlessly but not actually writing the book? Have you had a book in your head for years but been unable to start it? Do you have a drawer full of unfinished stories and manuscripts? If so, this workshop with Emma Newman can help. It’s designed to help you explore the reasons why you’re not getting that book written with practical tasks designed to help you start and finish that manuscript lurking at the back of your mind. (Bring a pen and paper!)
Maximum of 16 participants. Sign up online by 10pm Saturday 3rd October (link available on Sunday 27th September) or check at the info desk on Sunday before the start time to find out if there are still spaces available.
Crochet Your Own Octo
13:00, Tucana room (in-person)
Do you have your own Octo collective yet? If you do, why not add to it – and if you don’t, it’s time to start!
Join us as we teach you how to crochet your very own Octo. You will need about 25g of yarn (DK if possible, but any scrap yarn will do) and a crochet hook between 3mm and 5mm or one to match the weight of the yarn you use.
Get the pattern in advance.
Maximum of 16 participants. All ages welcome.
Sign up online by 10pm Saturday 3rd October (link available on Sunday 27th September) or check at the info desk on Sunday before the start time to find out if there are still spaces available.