Write the Future You Want to Live In: Sustaining Hope Through Storytelling

How do we keep writing when the world feels like it's falling apart?

In this craft-focused session, award-winning novelist and filmmaker Beth Barany reveals how the techniques of envisioning positive futures can transform both your stories and your writing practice.

Drawing from her "How to Write the Future" methodology and filmmaking background, Beth will share practical craft tools including:

• World-building beyond setting: How to construct futures that feel both possible and inspiring, using visual storytelling techniques from film
• Character motivation in crisis: Creating protagonists who take meaningful action rather than just surviving—and how this mirrors your own creative resilience
• The "What If" method: Borrowing from speculative fiction to generate story possibilities that offer hope without naivety
• Daily restart rituals: Concrete practices that help you clear mental clutter and access creative flow, even when external chaos threatens to derail your work
• Anchoring your practice: How to build sustainable writing routines that weather uncertainty, inspired by both filmmaking discipline and the iterative nature of crafting positive futures

Whether you write literary fiction, fantasy, science fiction, or any genre in between, you'll leave with specific techniques for infusing your work with the kind of forward-looking energy that keeps both you and your readers engaged—and a renewed sense of why your creative work matters now more than ever.

Perfect for fiction writers seeking both craft development and sustainable creative practices.