Sometimes coming up with the right character name can be the hardest part. Whether working in secondary worlds or the real world, we have some research tools to make picking that perfect name a little easier.
Do you need to have you own website? It depends on what you want to use the website for. Having an online presence may or may not translate to your desired action, in part because your presence really is about “you” as a person rather than “you” the author. With today’s technology, the two are not mutually exclusive.
Articulatory phonetics deals with how the human vocal tract creates sounds.
Knowing the principles of how the vocal tract works can help science fiction and fantasy writers to create languages that follow naturalistic patterns of pronunciation, thus making created languages that seem more natural.
This sequence of “How ____ can help you!” pieces concerns various areas of linguistics. These aren’t intended to be technical, or even introductory discussions of linguistics itself. They are short, practical pieces which relate linguistics topics to the use of created languages in science fiction and fantasy.
The Convention Finder searches a database of cons based on location, making it easy to find the convention nearest you.
There are few things that can destroy a good story faster than a bad reading. At the same time, a really good reading can make an audience excited and drive sales. Short of a background in theater, how can authors improve their reading skills?
When writing historical fiction or fantasy, the question of food either seems daunting or is completely overlooked. With the Historical Food Timeline, you can get an approximate idea of when a given food was introduced.
A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has awarded costs and attorneys’ fees to Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss, the principal operators of the Writer Beware website, soundly rejecting a frivolous lawsuit filed by a purported literary agent.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA), in conjunction with outside counsel, has reviewed the terms of the proposed settlement between Google, Inc. and the Authors Guild, Inc., and other class action plaintiffs.
This article by David Alexander Smith covers some of useful rules of thumb for story structure and world-building.
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? And what happens to the people you leave behind?
Debbie Urbanski is the author of the story collection Portalmania (S&S, May 2025) and the climate AI novel After World (S&S, 2023), which was a Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Engadget, Strange Horizons, & Booklist Best Book of the Year.
Come celebrate our diamond year with us! Register now for SFWA's 60th Annual Nebula Conference, hosted at Kansas City, MO, and also online, from June 5-8.
