The Writers Symposium brings together top authors, editors, and publishers for in-depth panels, workshops, and networking sessions that rival any dedicated writing convention. The Symposium is a fantastic opportunity to meet the minds behind the worlds you love — and maybe even discover your next literary obsession.
We continue our exciting preview of this year’s stellar lineup of authors in this blog, featuring Tim Waggoner, Richard Byers, and Gregory Wilson.
Tim Waggoner
Tim Waggoner writes horror, dark fantasy, and media tie-ins. He’s published over sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a one-time winner of the Scribe Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor of creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
What’s the hardest part of writing fiction that no one warns you about?
The feeling that no matter how well you write, you can never fully capture and communicate what you envision in your mind. The goal is to get as close as you can, even if you ultimately fall short.
What’s a writing habit or ritual you swear by?
Having a fresh cup of coffee to sip while you write!
What’s your favorite trick for overcoming writer’s block?
The best technique is to keep writing, no matter how bad you think it is or how uncomfortable it is. Eventually, you’ll write your way out of the block. The second best technique is to work on another project. If I’m stuck on a story, I’ll write an article or a blog post or my newsletter or a PowerPoint presentation for a class or workshop. Eventually, I’ll be ready to return to my origina project.
How do you balance world-building without overwhelming the story?
I present the world through the perceptions of the viewpoint character in a scene. I ask myself what this character would pay attention to now, what they would notice, and I present those details. I also focus on what characters are doing and slip in bits of details about the world as scenes progress.
What’s your favorite fictional world to get lost in—book, game, or movie?
Lately, I’ve been enjoying Howard Andrew Jones’ The Chronicles of Hanuvar, and I’ve been a big Star Trek fan since I was a kid.
What’s a lesser-known book that has deeply influenced your writing?
The anthology Alfred Hitchcock’s Monster Museum. I read it as a kid, and it was the first time I encountered Ray Bradbury’s “Homecoming” and Manly Wade Wellman’s “The Desrick on Yandro.” Those two stories were hugely influential for me.
What makes the Writers Symposium at Gen Con special for writers and readers alike?
There aren’t many writing workshops that provide an opportunity for writers and readers to interact so closely, and with the sense that we’re all colleagues as opposed to an attitude of Accomplished Writers Dispense Wisdom From on High to Lowly Newcomers that you sometimes get at a lot of workshops. Everyone — writers and readers alike — is there because they love words and stories.
Find more information about Tim at timwaggoner.com
Richard Lee Byers
Richard Lee Byers is the author of well over fifty fantasy and horror books and is perhaps best known for his Forgotten Realms novels. He has also written scores of short stories, scripted a graphic novel, and contributed content to electronic and tabletop games. The Plague Knight, a sword-and-sorcery screenplay he wrote based on one of his stories, is currently in the early stages of production.
What’s the hardest part of writing fiction that no one warns you about?
The willpower it takes to keep grinding away at a novel when you’re well past the beginning but nowhere near the end and the initial enthusiasm has worn off.
What’s a writing habit or ritual you swear by?
Keep to a regular schedule that keeps you producing new material frequently.
What’s your favorite trick for overcoming writer’s block?
I’m lucky. I’ve never had the full-blown writer’s block that others have described. But I have gotten stuck on occasion because I couldn’t figure out what happens next. When that happens, I find that reading what you’ve written can be a big help. You often find the answer waiting there.
How do you balance world-building without overwhelming the story?
It’s not really a problem for me because I tend not to do or share much world-building that isn’t relevant to the story. I like a fast pace.
What’s your favorite fictional world to get lost in—book, game, or movie?
Today, probably the Marvel Universe, mainly as seen in the comics but the movies too. When I was a kid, the universe of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s novels.
What’s a lesser-known book that has deeply influenced your writing?
“Lesser-known” is hard to determine given that I’ve mainly been influenced by works in the genre of the fantastic and most of the people reading this probably have some familiarity with that kind of fiction. But outside that genre, I’ve been influenced by the works of Raymond Chandler, Rex Stout, and Hunter S. Thompson.
What makes the Writers Symposium at Gen Con special for writers and readers alike?
The panels and workshops give lots of great advice to aspiring writers, and in my experience, the audience members are intelligent, talented, and eager to absorb what we have to say.
Find more information about Richard here.
Gregory Wilson
Gregory A. Wilson is Professor of English at St. John’s University, where he teaches creative writing and speculative fiction, and is author of Clemson UP’s The Problem in the Middle: Liminal Space and the Court Masque, book chapters, and journal articles. Outside academia he is author of the epic fantasy The Third Sign, the award-winning graphic novel Icarus and critically acclaimed dark fantasy Gray Assassin Trilogy with books Grayshade, Renegade, and Heretic (praised by Martha Wells, Julie Czerneda, Ed Greenwood, and many others), the best-selling 5E adventure/sourcebook Tales and Tomes from the Forbidden Library, plus many short stories.
Under the moniker Arvan Eleron he runs a Twitch channel about story and narrative, with many sponsored TTRPG campaigns, and co-hosts the GenGMs podcast on gamemastering techniques.
What’s the hardest part of writing fiction that no one warns you about?
Balance. You need not only to balance within your writing–not over or under describing, using exposition sparingly while still providing your readers enough information to work with, providing an emotional core to your work without making it unreasonably confessional–but outside of it as well, searching for a reasonable mixture of work and play, writing time and non-writing time, and so on.
Everyone has a wonderful selection of tips and tricks to choose from…but balancing when and how to use those pieces of excellent advice is critical.
What’s a writing habit or ritual you swear by?
Everyone’s approach is different, but for me, when I’m in the midst of a manuscript, writing one page a day is hugely helpful. Before I adopted this approach, I used to have boom or bust writing sessions, writing thousands of words one day and struggling to write a few sentences the next, and the inability to predict what I was going to get was exhausting.
But writing one manuscript page a day, 300 words or so, is doable for me, and not only allows me to remain consistent in terms of output but also maintain a consistent flow of writing. One page a day = 300 in about ten months, and that’s essentially a novel-length manuscript right there.
What’s your favorite trick for overcoming writer’s block?
Finding out what’s actually behind the block! I actually don’t think writer’s block exists as such; I think it’s a proxy for something else which is actually bothering me, and once I can figure out what that is–by taking a walk, listening to music, playing a game, leaving the project to the next day or several days if necessary–the block almost always disappears.
How do you balance world-building without overwhelming the story?
You need to be aware what is fundamental to what you’re trying to get across–in other words, what is the central theme? Theme ultimately ties everything together, and if something–be it a piece of worldbuilding, character development, dialogue, or something else–doesn’t really fit the themes of my work, those are usually the first things to end up on the cutting room floor.
I’d also point out that world building is in the eye of the beholder, so what a person recognizes says a lot about that person internally–presumably a marine biologist would be intrigued by different things within the city of Atlantis than, say, an architect, or a detective. Remembering who the guide is for your world building can really help provide the right amount of it for the given tale.
What’s your favorite fictional world to get lost in—book, game, or movie?
The Lord of the Rings, books and movie…the world of Middle-earth has been special to me since I was young, and I am continually amazed at the depth and complexity of the history and sociology of the place as imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien, and how well that depth is rendered in the visual imagery of Peter Jackson’s films.
What’s a lesser-known book that has deeply influenced your writing?
John Myers Myers’ Silverlock–a product of its time, to be sure, but a spectacular piece of world building, which when I read it blew me away with the ease it deployed mystical elements from hundreds of years of history, all while being an entertaining and dynamic tale. And some of the one-liners from the book have stayed with me for a very long time!
What makes the Writers Symposium at Gen Con special for writers and readers alike?
The Symposium is a place for serious writing study married with an understanding of speculative fiction and gaming, especially on the role-playing side…and that creates a real seriousness of purpose combined with comfort and friendliness from panelists and attendees alike.
The panelists’ credentials are top notch, the programming is always compelling, and the attendees are thoughtful, engaged, and committed. I think it’s the best writing event in the United States every year, and it’s been an honor to be able to be a part of it for seventeen years and counting!
Find more information about Gregory at gregoryawilson.com.
Check back for Part 3 as we continue to share our 2025 Writers Symposium authors.
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