Writing & Publishing Have You Signed Up For Sci-Fi Week at PWA?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johne
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@Johne I'm so glad you posted this! I signed up. I've been looking for some free things to pass the time while we are out of state for the transplant. This is perfect! :)
 
Just watched the AI video and I will say this:

Do not use any of the advice they gave outside of prompt crafting. Do NOT trust any "research" it does for you. Worse, their "expert" giving the seminar flat out fibbed in regards to copyright. It will get you into trouble.

I was aghast how bad some of the advice and content creation was. Asking ChatGPT to respond as a nutritionist? Uhhh you're going to get sued for any advice it gives. There are laws of accreditation and licenses around the medical field that can land you in jail or worse, kill someone if your advice is wrong.

Furthermore, I don't like being gaslit by a lecturer and I question his real expertise. He never shared any "dialogue examples" despite claiming to have.

That said, the prompt advice was minorly helpful if you can figure out a way to have it produce something you can use and modify by your own hand. It was also surprising how many self proclaimed striking Hollywood writers were in the chat. It left me going if this was impressing them, no wonder they're terrified. How are they even writers??? The only thing the examples proved was the ability to make outlines and synopsis. Basic brainstorming stuff.

This has severely hurt PWA credibility in my eyes.
 
Well.... So I started listening to this. (@Johne I'm still glad you posted this, it gives you an idea about what people are thinking in the market, or not thinking lol) I just listened to the first program, "Blade Runner and Beyond." It was so bad it was comical. It was at least 20 minutes of being preached at about how we need more diverse stories about the LGBTQ community and how theres not enough representation and so on. It's truly bad advice, at least for our target audience. I went into detail on why in the comment I left which I'm sure is going to be taken down. The third video was a LOT better.
 
Rio1064 said:
Well.... So I started listening to this. (@Johne I'm still glad you posted this, it gives you an idea about what people are thinking in the market, or not thinking lol) I just listened to the first program, "Blade Runner and Beyond." It was so bad it was comical. It was at least 20 minutes of being preached at about how we need more diverse stories about the LGBTQ community and how theres not enough representation and so on. It's truly bad advice, at least for our target audience. I went into detail on why in the comment I left which I'm sure is going to be taken down. The third video was a LOT better.
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So it's not just me. I haven't even bothered listening to any of these seminars today. I really hope they ask me for a feedback survey.
 
It's too late for me to get in to that video. But then again, I've been so disgusted, I'm glad I'm only getting what I paid for.
 
I have never been much on sci-fi, although I did write one sci-fi novella and I based it on faster than light travel. People seemed to enjoy it and I did enjoy writing it.
 
I can confirm the 3rd video "Finding Your Ideal Reader" was good. She went through identifying the audience you want and marketing to them and not too broadly. She also talked about doing this with different books. Nothing mindbending, but pretty solid.
 
I will probably go back and watch the episodes I want after the 25th when they're supposed to be available for replay.
 
For instance, here's the video for how to find your ideal reader persona from my friend Sue Campbell.
 
And here's the Essentials of Writing Science Fiction from my friends Anne Hawley and Rachelle Ramirez:
 
Just quit watching "How to Edit a Science Fiction Novel" and I feel it was a big bait and switch. It's not tips and tricks for editing in that specific genre. It has been nothing less than basic/remedial developmental editing skills and then a shill for Fictionary software which looks and feels like a re-skin of Scrivner.

So basically, I couldn't recommend anything I've seen so far, except for those who have never been to a writer's conference or are brand new to writing, and have had not taken any courses on craft before. For that skill level, this is fine. You'll get several good things out of this, but it's "one size fits all" levels of advice.

But! If you've published, and/or have been in the industry for several years, it's a waste of time. You already know this and there's nothing aimed at Science Fiction that's groundbreaking or revolutionary here so far except in very surface level allusions to the genre.

I had high hopes for this and am glad it is only online for free, because if I had paid to go to a conference for this level stuff, I'd be demanding my money back.
 
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