Octocon 2002 Writers' Workshop

The purpose of this workshop is to allow aspiring writers to have their work examined by their peers.

This is how it will work: each Octocon member who intends to participate in the workshop is required to submit a short story (between 1500 and 4500 words in length) to the Octocon website (more details on this later). Upon receipt of the story, the member will then receive a password allowing him or her to access the Workshop area of the Octocon website.

The submitted story will soon after be available on the website to other workshop members. Each member is expected to read every other story at least once.

During the convention, a professional writer will moderate the workshop. Each submitted story will be discussed and critiqued. It is intended that criticism will - for the most part - be on the constructive side, though the moderator will be operating on the assumption that each writer has left his or her ego outside the door; if you are faint of heart and delicate of nature, you probably shouldn't participate... However, if you feel that you have the right stuff and aren't afraid to have a bunch of strangers telling you that your story isn't as good as it could be, then please join us.

There isn't a prize for the best story - this is not a competition! The purpose of workshopping a story is to receive feedback and criticism. It's worth pointing out that David D. Levine's excellent short story "Nucleon" - the winner of last year's James White Award - was extensively workshopped.

Your story should adhere to the following rules:

1. Stories can only be submitted electronically! We're assuming that since you're reading this on-line, then you have access to (a) a computer and (b) the Internet.
2. The story should be in plain text or RTF format - it will be converted to HTML for viewing on the website.
3. One story only per reader, between 1500 and 4500 words, and you may only submit the story once - otherwise we'd be swamped with endless rewrites and different versions!
4. Only members of Octocon 2002 may submit to the workshop.
5. Your story should be submitted no later than 6th October 2002. Extended from previous date due to late entries.
6. The story should be complete - not unfinished or part of a larger work. However, exceptions may be made in special cases; please contact us if you have any specific queries regarding this.
7. The story should be all your own work.
8. Make sure that your name and the story title are on the first page of the document!
9. We reserve the right to reject any story, without explanation.

To submit your story, please save it in Text (txt) or Rich Text (rtf) format and send it to us at . Please do not send Word document files (doc) as these can transmit viruses. Instead, use the "Save As" command and change the format to Rich Text.