Seminar 2026: BUILD / DREAM: Crafting Mechanisms of Plot, Seeking Mechanisms of Inspiration
$45.00 (limited to 30 participants)
10:00 am – 3:00 pm, Friday, June 19, 2026
Support 4th Street and join us for a lively writing seminar led by two published speculative fiction writers!
Our morning session, led by John Appel, will offer a tools-and-tactics session for plotting and for dealing with the question of “What’s next?” when nothing seems to be moving a story, and how to avoid simply writing yourself into another corner when you apply solutions to your previous obstacles.
After lunch, Arkady Martine will get a bit mystical to guide us in the use of divinatory tools, cut-up methods, Oblique Strategies, and the art of allowing experimental structures or decisions to work as inspiration points. Learn about the fascination of procedurally generated language, the difference between that and an LLM, and why to never use an LLM as a divinatory or inspiration tool.
The seminar will take place from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm on Friday, June 19th (with a break for lunch), and tickets are $45. Spots are limited to 30 participants. Seminar registration is now closed.
JOHN APPEL is a science fiction, fantasy, and RPG adventure writer. His debut novel, Assassin’s Orbit, was published by Rebellion in 2021 and was a finalist for the 2022 Compton Crook Award. John is a founding member of the Maryland Space Opera Collective writing group (MD SPOC).
ARKADY MARTINE is a Byzantinist, city planner, climate and energy policy analyst, and the author of the science fiction novels A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace, as well as the novella Rose/House. She has won the Hugo, Locus, and Compton Crook Awards and been nominated for the Clarke and Nebula Awards.