Story Generator Workshop
Fall 2026

Get together online with friends weekly to write and submit new stories!
- sign up now -

steam-generator-powered Olivetti typewriter producing a page from the Book of Kells
a steam-powered Olivetti typewriter generating a page from the Book of Kells

About the Workshop

Instructors

How to Enroll

Cost

Donate

Diversity, Inclusivity, and Commitment to Equity

Related Writing Workshops and Resources

Looking for a way to write a lot of new fiction this fall? We have a workshop for you!

In his rules for writers who want to get published, Robert Heinlein said (among other things), "You must write, you must finish what you write, and you must put your work on the market." That's what this workshop is all about.

Award-winning SF author, scholar, and educator Christopher McKitterick designed this new, ongoing story-prompt and -writing workshop to serve writers looking for a reliable way to begin, complete, and submit several new works while enjoying the support and encouragement of an enthusiastic cohort. Think of it as your "Spec-Fic Writing Prompts and Solidarity to Get Stuff Written Group." As a full-time writer, full-time Ad Astra Institute director, and full-time Dad (that's three "full-times"), Chris deeply understands the value and difficulty of getting creative work done, and his prompt system is proven to do just that. He plans to write a new story every week alongside the other participants.

Starting Wed, Oct 7, at 7pm Central (we'll likely adjust the schedule to best suit participants - I, for one, would prefer mornings or afternoons), we'll gather online weekly, catch up on how everyone's writing is going, and produce a new story based on prompts, then continue doing so every week until early December. If you've taken his Repeat Offenders Workshops, you have a good idea of how it'll go. After an hour of quiet writing solidarity, we'll check in to see how it's going, and those who wish to share their new creations can read them for the other attendees (in the interest of time, if needed I'll roll dice to randomly select readers from those who offer - but feel free to continue working if you're on a roll). We'll also hold occasional submission parties to encourage everyone to send off their work for potential publication, because the only way to get published is to submit your fiction to those who publish things like it.

We'll plan to meet every non-holiday week, but no one is required to do so - if something unavoidable comes up, that's life, and the week's prompt will be waiting for when you're ready. You can also join any time over the 8 or so weeks we'll meet. This workshop is designed to support getting new work done and sent out, not to shame you into doing so (unless that's what works for you, in which case we'll apply the pressure you need).

This is not a critique-based workshop, though we encourage participants to get in touch, share critiques, and revise your work. Let us know if you want to make that a part of this workshop, and we can work out times to do so as a group for those interested in group critiquing.

We welcome all flavors of speculative fiction including fantasy, hard SF, horror, magical realism, slipstream, speculative philosophy, and so on. The prompts are useful for starting all lengths of fiction, though for the purpose of creating new work during these short bursts of creativity, McKitterick encourages participants to try to complete your piece in the time we're gathered. During the summer Repeat Offenders Workshop, most attendees finish several short-shorts and flash pieces during similar prompt exercises (even if they end up longer after revision), so let's see how many new works we can create this fall! Here's the random-word generator page we'll be using (which contains links to the SF, Fantasy, and Horror word-specific generators; these word databases will likely continue to grow).

McKitterick's workshops emphasize mutual support and are designed to help everyone learn and grow not only as authors but as members of the spec-fic community. Spend time with friends and make new ones!

This is part of a growing collection of classes and workshops offered throughout the year through what we call Ad Astra Universe-ity.

No AI-generated slop, please. We support human creators, and do not support using plagiarism-machines. Truly sentient constructed minds are welcome, too, if they ever appear. But we'll have some questions.

Instructors

Christopher McKitterick
Workshop Leader

Ad Astra director Chris McKitterick leads the workshop, serving up fresh writing prompts suited for developing new spec-fic each week.

Since the 1990s, he has taught science-fiction and creative-writing workshops, seminars, masterclasses, and full-semester courses at the University of Kansas and around the world. In 2018, he was one of three finalists for the H.O.P.E. (Honor for Outstanding Progressive Educator) Teaching Award, the most prestigious teaching award given at the University of Kansas.

He's taught the intensive summer Spec-Fic Workshop for decades. In 2016 he founded the "Repeat Offenders" Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop (advanced workshop for returning alums), and founded the Ad Astra "Science into Fiction" workshop series in 2022. Chris first enrolled in James Gunn's Science Fiction Writers Workshop in 1992, then served as guest instructor from 1995-2009, leading the redesigned Spec-Fic Workshop since 2010. He's also designed and taught SF literature and media courses for decades.

Chris' short work has appeared in many publications. His "Ashes of Exploding Suns, Monuments to Dust" made the Tangent Recommended Reading List and won the AnLab Reader's Award for best novelette - his first major fiction-writing honor. He regularly publishes nonfiction, and a poem or two became lyrics for songs. His debut novel, Transcendence, is now out in a special new edition from Ad Astra Folios, and his first fiction collection, Visions of Space & Time, was released in 2026. He recently finished the far-future novel Empire Ship and the first book in The Galactic Adventures of Jack & Stella. He has several other projects on the burners, including a hybrid short-fiction collection and book on writing due to hit Kickstarter soon.

En route to becoming an SF scholar, writer, and educator, Chris studied astrophysics, education, classics, and psychology. He's been taking professional writing and science workshops (and university courses) across the country since the 1980s. He earned his BA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he ran two observatories and a planetarium and served as assistant instructor for physics and astronomy courses while editing a couple college literary journals. He spent a year writing and teaching K-12 in the Montana Badlands, then began formal SF writing and literature studies in 1992 with James Gunn at the University of Kansas, where he earned his MA in creative writing and continued post-graduate studies ever after. For nearly a decade he worked for gaming and tech companies in Seattle, spending summer vacations co-teaching the SF Workshop and SF Institute with Gunn. In 2002, KU recruited him to teach SF and writing full-time, where he developed many SFnal offerings. He never stops learning, including recently at The Schrödinger Sessions quantum physics workshop and the LaunchPad Astronomy Workshop.

Chris first launched Ad Astra as a University of Kansas Center (announcement) in 2021 after having directed James Gunn's original Center for the Study of Science Fiction with Jim and Kij Johnson from 1995-2022, then expanded it into the nonprofit Ad Astra Institute for Science Fiction & the Speculative Imagination in 2023. In addition to doing all things Ad Astra, he gardens, rescues wild animals, and watches the sky. He and his beloved Lauren married in 2023, and they welcomed Baby McKitterick into the world in 2024. They live in LFK with two cats, three birds, and lots of other critters.

Special Guest Instructor
Phil Baringer

We are pleased to announce that experimental particle physicist and science-fiction expert Phil Baringer joins us as Special Guest Instructor!

Philip Baringer, PhD, has more than 35 years of teaching and research experience. He's KU Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy who's received numerous awards for his teaching, including the Department Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence, and the University Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Excellence in Teaching Award, chosen by graduate students in Physics and Astronomy. He served as inaugural speaker for Ad Astra's Science into Fiction writing workshop series, also participating in the developmental and critique workshops, where he not only shared his scientific expertise but also a deep understanding of SF narrative. For nearly 20 years, Phil has co-taught "Science, Technology, & Society: Examining the Future Through a Science-Fiction Lens" and "Science into Fiction" writing workshops with McKitterick, taught several SF Honors courses, served on many graduate thesis and dissertation committees on SF writing and literature, serves on the nominations committee of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short SF, and is a ravenous SF and comics reader.

After years of publishing scientific papers, he has also begun selling his own short SF.

Baringer's research focuses on experimental particle physics, particularly production of the top quark. He's a member of the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration, an international group operating an experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research's Large Hadron Collider. Baringer believes in the importance of communicating science to a general audience. He has also received the Steeples Award for Service to Kansans, an award that recognizes faculty members for sharing their teaching and research with the people of Kansas.

Phil will participate in both weeks of the Spec-Fic Workshop to provide a fresh perspective on your revision, as well las for the full run of the Repeat Offenders Workshop. He plans to occasionally join us for dinners and other hanging-out throughout the workshops.

Read more about Phil on his KU bio page, LinkedIn, or Google Scholar.

How to Enroll

Sign up any time this fall, and participate in as many or as few get-togethers as you wish. Just go to McKitterick's Patreon, become a supporting member at the $5 or higher support tier (existing patrons have no additional costs to participate), and then drop a note on his Story Generator Workshop post or email Chris at spec.fic.workshop@gmail.com to complete your enrollment.

If you don't wish to join Patreon, you may enroll by writing Chris directly at spec.fic.workshop@gmail.com and making separate payment arrangements as described below.

After you finish registering - by leaving a note on the Story Generator Workshop post or emailing - you'll be put on the mailing list and receive information about joining the online activities.

If you'd like to help future attendees, please consider making a donation!

Costs

Go to McKitterick's Patreon and become a supporting member at the $5 or higher support tier (existing patrons have no additional costs to participate). Patreon is free to use, and there you can find lots of other great creators to support.

Alternately, if you don't wish to join Patreon, you may enroll by writing Chris directly at spec.fic.workshop@gmail.com and making a direct $50 tuition payment (tuition-reduction scholarship available if needed).

For direct payments or donations, we accept Zelle (use adastra.sf.institute@gmail.com ), PayPal (please add an additional 3.4% to cover PayPal's fees, or use "send to a friend"), or check. Please send checks to:

Ad Astra Institute for Science Fiction & the Speculative Imagination
1809 Indiana St.
Lawrence, KS 66044

2016 Workshoppers in our scholarship-hall lounge
2016 Workshop cohort
Front (left to right): Sarah Worrel, Caitlin Rogers, Andy Duncan, Andrea Corbin, Christopher McLucas.
Back: M. Luke McDonell, Izzy Wasserstein, Gregory Scheckler, Shawn Frazier, Dylan Henderson, Laura Wilson Anderson, Chris McKitterick.
Not pictured: James Gunn.

Join the Ad Astra community and reach for the stars!

Donate

The Ad Astra Institute is a registered 501(c)3 educational, arts, and research nonprofit. If you wish to support our activities by making a charitable donation to help others attend the workshops who might otherwise not be able to, contact McKitterick (cmckit.sf@gmail.com). We accept Zelle (use adastra.sf.institute@gmail.com to make a direct donation), PayPal (which takes an additional 3.4% fee, or use "send to a friend"), and checks; please send checks to:

Ad Astra Institute for Science Fiction & the Speculative Imagination
1809 Indiana St.
Lawrence, KS 66044

Does your workplace match contributions to nonprofit organizations? Many do! Check with your HR rep or manager to see if yours might double your donation.

We also partner with Farbeyond Books - a fantastic woman-owned spec-fic bookstore - which donates at least 50% of all sales to Ad Astra, so if you have books you'd like to donate, let us know. Your donation is fully tax-deductible!

Thank you so much to our donors and supporters! You make all this possible.

Diversity, Inclusivity, Accessibility, and Commitment to Equity

Everyone enjoys equal access to our offerings, and we actively encourage students and scholars from diverse backgrounds to study. We especially encourage people from historically under-represented groups to apply for our courses and scholarships. Many of our other courses are available online or in hybrid format (if space is available) to help enable those who might not be able to attend in person to participate, and we happily make accommodations to enable everyone to enjoy the fullest experience. We also make accomodations for those who cannot attend in person.

At Ad Astra, we also believe that earning a creative education should not depend on financial privilege, so we offer several scholarships to enable everyone to participate. If you wish to help support others to enroll, please consider donating to our scholarship fund (the Ad Astra Institute is a not-for-profit organization). Many of the most promising writers don't enjoy the same privilege as those who do, so we strive to level the playing field so everyone regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, income, nationality or immigrant status, physical ability status, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or marital, parental, and veteran status has equal opportunity to participate in our educational programs, and equal access to our activities. We want everyone to enjoy the same opportunity to become a professional speculative-fiction writer! We work to be a safe space for those who come to our events and educational programs.

Go here to read our thoughts on diversity, accessibility, and inclusivity, and our commitment to equity. So far, we receive no federal funds, so we needn't surrender to government overreach.

"Science into Fiction" Spec-Fic Writing Workshops:
  Series 1: "The Higgs Boson in This Particular Universe"
  Series 2: "Creativity and the Brain"
  Series 3: "Writing in (and about) the Age of Artificial Intelligence"
  Series 4: "Six great stories and what makes them work: The science of SF writing"
  Series 5: "Story Generator" Writing Workshop, Fall 2026 - join any time!
  Series 6: "Hopepunk" - coming Fall 2027