Narrativity offers a single track of programming, so ideas can carry through from one panel to the next and the conversation continues all weekend — and our panels are participatory events, so the audience is as much a part of the conversation as the panelists. In the evenings, we’ll have all the function space available for music, conversations, games, or other activities that take your fancy. If you’d like to organize something specific, let us know!

We would say “No sooner does one con end than planning for the next starts,” but that would not be true, because as anyone who is at Narrativity on the last day knows, we start planning the next Narrativity BEFORE the current one ends. However, Narrativity hang-over is real, and it then takes us about a month to actually update the website. But here we are again, with a list of panel suggestions taken from the 2024 Narrativity “A Different Panel” list, suggestions from previous years we just have not had the right panelists for, and other random ideas that get thrown up throughout the year.

Here is our preliminary list of panel ideas for Narrativity 2025: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. This list will grow and get fleshed out during the year as we have conversations, new ideas come up, or the world throws something we had not thought of before in front of us. As always, let us know (link below) what ideas you like, what panels you want to be on, or your own ideas for a panel.

Drinking culture to tell your story
Politics/gvernment systems as world building
Magic solves everything – fantasy panel
Biology solves everything – science fiction panel
What’s this thing Liz keeps talking about that is obviously not called “Plot”
Collaboration: Why Do It? And Why Not?
Collaboration between a plotter & a pantser – can it work?
Writing with fear
How to give effective feedback
Filler words in dialog – threat or menace
Summarizing Dialog – Threat or Menace
Pre-Joycian Fellowship vs Escapism: Daggers Drawn
Closure vs ambiguity –
What are your obligations in endings/what to writers owe their readers
Does the author get to speak?
Is it possible for the author to be too present in the work
How do I tell if I am lying in my art
High-level creativity – finding the tools to create
How do you get the audience to trust you?
Where do your characters come from
How do you get your characters to talk to you?
Commerce in art: Threat or menace
Industry vs Audience: Who are we writing for?
Writing to Market: Yes, No, and How
Is Theme a Thematic Question
Location, Location, Location – how where you are feeds, starves, and otherwise influences your writing
Non-linear storytelling – adding layers
This is what you call feminism? – Politics in storytelling
When NOT to write
Beats & dramatic structure
Using storytelling games to tell your story
How to use tropes to good effect
Music as tools for writers
Cutting as a tool
Writing an effective author bio
Just Add Rhymes: Storytelling in Poetry
What is your problem? Bring our panelists your stickiest storytelling problem and we’ll help you fight your way into the clear
LJ and Steve and Liz and Meg have an Argument About what? Who knows at this point. Share your ideas. Or try to start an argument between them on social media that we can bring into the con.
Into the Weeds You can’t see where you’re going. You stepped off the path of your outline/character description/style/genre. Disaster…or a chance to surprise yourself, do things you didn’t think you could, have a storytelling adventure?

Have your own idea for a panel? Want to be a panelist? Please contact our Paragon of Programming, Erin Shanendoah, and let her know what you’re interested in.