Surrey International Writers’ Conference
SiWC 2026.
Sessions with Sean Cranbury.
My schedule on the SiWC websiteSurrey International Writers’ Conference is the best-kept secret in the Pacific Northwest. A bustling, well-organized, supportive and inspiring community of writers, agents, editors, publishers and more. Across every genre.
I kept notes from the 2026 version of my various presentations and moderated sessions. Click on a session below to access the slide decks or session summaries.
SiWC is the best writers conference I have ever been to. There are few things that I look forward to more than this epic weekend at the end of October every year.
9:30 am–12:30 pm Pacific
The Act of Constant Relevance: Practical Marketing for Writers
In this session
- Reading beyond your usual genres to learn from other writers
- Making time for writing alongside the business of being a writer
- Separating drafting from editing and working through anxiety
- Building trusted writing groups and sharing the research load
- Starting an author website at a scale that suits your career
- Sharing writing online while considering privacy and publication
- Choosing a sustainable approach to newsletters and social media
10:00–11:15 am Pacific
Pulling Apart the Paragraph: Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind
In this session
- Close readings of the openings of two influential novels
- How early choices establish voice, structure and narrative authority
- Silence, absence and omission in The Name of the Wind
- How Rothfuss’s ending returns to the novel’s opening
- The relationship between Earthseed verses and journal entries in Parable of the Sower
- The role of poetry, rhythm and compression within prose
- Writing exercises on silence and poetry connected to a work in progress
4:15–5:30 pm Pacific
What Everybody is Looking For: Crafting Unique Voices
In this session
- How specificity can create connections across different experiences
- Writing characters with conflicting feelings and complex motives
- The difference between authorial style and individual character voices
- Listening to characters when a scene or plot becomes stuck
- Developing confidence and taking creative risks over time
- Revising voice and perspective to change a reader’s understanding
- Exploring drafting methods, trusted feedback and performed audiobook voice
10:00–11:15 am Pacific
Language Bending for Fun and Profit
In this session
- Making sentences more immediate through concrete subjects and actions
- Rhythm, white space and the boundaries between prose and poetry
- Balancing structure and discovery when planning a piece
- Working with sound, repetition and syntax as creative material
- Distinguishing characters through speech, desire and what they withhold
- Examining a scene’s balance of thought, dialogue, action and imagery
- Using playful constraints and reading aloud to interrupt writing habits