Join us for a Writers' Social on Tuesday, June 9, from 7:00 - 8:15 PM Pacific by registering here and a Zoom link for the event will be emailed to you.
Many of us strive for connection with other writers. This monthly members-only event is designed to help bring us together for casual chats, with Breakout Rooms for specific topics, genres, and niches. Join us for 75 minutes of craft, career, and connection talk, with the chance to meet new people and get the most out of being a part of the FBCW. Below are the proposed discussion groups for this month's meeting (subject to change). Please email hello@bcwriters.ca if you would like to suggest a discussion topic for an upcoming meeting. See you there!
Discussion Groups:
This event is exclusive to FBCW members. If you’re not a member yet, we would love to have you join us. You can find out more about membership at https://www.bcwriters.ca/benefits.
Digital doors open at 6:55 PM. Event starts at 7:00 PM Pacific.
Whether you’re a new FBCW member or a seasoned member who wants a refresher, join us for Member Orientation! We’ll be discussing member benefits, focusing on ways that the FBCW members can: Learn, Write, Connect, and Promote. Find out about the latest events, writing sprints, how to get involved, and where to get the information you seek.
The orientation overview will take about 20 minutes, and then there will be 10 minutes for questions at the end (30 minutes total).
Digital Doors Open at 11:55 AM, Event Starts at Noon Pacific Time
**This event will be recorded. A link to the recording will be emailed to registrants within a week of the session. The recording will be available for 45 days.
Writer Talk: With Gabrielle Prendergast Free, or by donation
WRITER TALK is our new live interview series designed to pull back the golden curtain on the publishing world. Casual chitchat—not a workshop or webinar—a low-key Q&A between host and guest where you can bring your writing and publishing questions. Each session features a guest from within this crazy industry—writers of all career stages repping a variety of genres and styles, successfully published authors, freelance and publishing house editors, agents, publicists, and other book-world professionals—in a candid chat meant to inform and inspire. We’ll dig into the real questions we all have about how to go from page 1 to published.
Digital doors open at 6:55 pm!
She can be found online at gsprendergast.com.
Pick up Gabrielle's latest book
After the initial Q&A, attendees will have the opportunity to ask their own questions and join the discussion. If you’ve ever wanted to sit in on the kinds of conversations that usually happen behind closed doors, then we shall save you a spot! If you have a topic burning a hole in your brain, drop me an email at jennifer@bcwriters.ca, and I will do my best to find an expert to sit in our very comfy, not-at-all-hot seat.
Seasonal Spark Writing Sessions
Free to all!
Event Description:
Join author and editor Christina Myers near the start of each season—summer, fall, winter, and spring—for a creative boost through fun prompts based on each season's themes. Spend 45 minutes writing in a lighthearted session that will help get those creative wheels turning! Great for all genres of writing; prompts will be wide open to interpretation.
All events are online via Zoom. These sessions will not be recorded.
Our first session celebrates SUMMER!
Join us each season for more Seasonal Spark Writing Sessions! Stay tuned!
Intended Audience:
Writers of all skill levels welcome.
Bio:
Christina Myers is a writer, editor, former journalist, and the author of two books and the editor of two anthologies. She has been longlisted for the Leacock medal, twice shortlisted for the Fred Kerner Book Prize, and is a two-time winner with the Canadian Book Club Awards. She teaches creative writing at SFU's Continuing Studies Department. Find her online at https://linktr.ee/christinamyers.
Last year, we held our first Editing focused Writing Intensive and you told us it was a hit! We are excited to share that it is coming back for a second pass, with new workshops and learnings. While this event does not require any prior knowledge or attendance, we are excited to share that we will be sending out highlights from last year's recordings as a bonus to everyone who signs up.
Join us for five days of online learning from June 22 to 26, 2026.
ABOUT
EDIT TREK: THE NEXT ITERATION is a weeklong online editing intensive focused on the messy, necessary, deeply transformative work of revision.
Running via Zoom from June 22 to 26, this editing- and revision-focused intensive will help writers look beyond the first draft and into the real craft of shaping, strengthening, and polishing a manuscript. With sessions offered at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Pacific, participants can choose from a range of workshops, talks, and discussions led by editors, authors, and publishing professionals with different areas of expertise.
Revision is not one single pass through a manuscript. It is a process of discovery, diagnosis, decision-making, and refinement. Whether a writer is revising their first short story, preparing a novel for submission, reworking a memoir, polishing poems, strengthening nonfiction, or returning to a long-abandoned project, this intensive will offer practical tools and thoughtful guidance for every stage of the journey.
Sessions will explore the full arc of revision, from big-picture structural work to scene-level refinement, character development, pacing, clarity, language, self-editing strategies, working with feedback, choosing beta readers, participating in critique groups, and understanding when a manuscript may be ready for professional editing or submission.
Designed for writers at all levels and career stages, EDIT TREK: THE NEXT ITERATION invites participants to approach revision not as punishment for an imperfect first draft, but as the creative process that turns raw material into a stronger, clearer, more compelling piece of writing.
Bring your questions, your courage, your problem chapters, your half-solved endings, your overstuffed middles, your comma anxieties, and your willingness to see the work anew. The next draft is where the real adventure begins.
EVENT SCHEDULE OVERVIEW
All times are in Pacific (Vancouver) time.
Presentations will be recorded and available to registrants for 45 days after the intensive. The recordings will all be emailed at once, within a week of the end of the intensive. Socials and writing sprints will not be recorded.
SESSIONS INCLUDE:
GAIL ANDERSON DARGATZ: Big Picture Revision: Turn Your Good Book into a Great One
Okay, let’s face it: writers don’t like conflict. Who does? But when we allow our characters to avoid their conflicts, we run into real problems, such as unclear story goals, passive protagonists and wandering storylines. These issues stem from a lack of thorough development, which can stand in the way of a book’s potential for success or even prevent it from being published. In this workshop, award-winning novelist and developmental editor Gail Anderson-Dargatz will point out where you’re likely avoiding conflict on the page and explore ways to build more active characters and a strong narrative drive.
DAVID BROWN (with the Darling Axe): That's What She Said is a workshop about revising dialogue. We'll look at some badly written dialogue and discuss why it's not working and what to do about it. We'll also look at things like beats, spacing, dialect, and how to write effective dialogue
CHRISTINA MYERS: Perfect Match: The Writer and Editor Relationship
Join editor and author Christina Myers for a session on working with professional editors, including how to find the right editor for you, when to think about hiring a professional, best practices in the writer/editor relationship, and more. The session will include time for a Q&A.
CADENCE MANDYBURA: 5-Stage Story Refinery
Are you stuck between drafts? The story refinery is a guided process for examining your manuscript, rekindling your passion for your story, and making decisions that will help you move forward with confidence and commitment. Bring some pages of your manuscript—hard copy if possible!—to mark up as part of this session, as well as a notebook and several colours of pen. This session is appropriate for writers of all genres and experience levels.
More descriptions and final details coming soon!
ZOOM LINK
RECORDINGS
WHAT TO EXPECT
RATES
POLICIES
REFUND POLICY
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
LIABILITY
PARTICIPANT EXPECTATIONS
ACCOMMODATIONS AND ACCESSIBILITY
A Novelist's Guide to Writing Memoir
with Darren Groth
Member Price: $18
Non-Member Price is $28
Workshop/Event Description
A short exploration of novel-writing techniques that prove useful, and at times even essential in a first-time journey penning memoir. This 90-minute session showcases 5 novel-writing techniques that don't just translate to memoir, but make it sing.
Key Takeaways
Intended audience:
Writers of any skill level
For more information, visit his website: https://darrengroth.com/
Pick up Darren's latest book
Digital doors open at 1:55 pm, event starts at 2:00 pm
Join us for a Writers' Social on Tuesday, July 14, from 7:00 - 8:30 PM Pacific by registering here and a Zoom link for the event will be emailed to you.
Digital Doors Open at 1:55 PM, Event Starts at 2:00 PM Pacific Time
Writer Talk: With Jennifer Chevais Free, or by donation
She can be found online at www.therightsfactory.com/Agents/jennifer-chevais.
Join us for five days of online learning from July 20 to 24, 2026.
EASY BREEZY BEACH READS is a weeklong online writing intensive focused on the craft, discipline, and deceptive difficulty of writing books that feel effortless to read. Beach reads are often described as “light,” but lightness is not the same as simplicity. Just because something is an easier read does not mean it is an easy write. While each session is designed to stand alone, the overall writing intensive has been carefully curated to offer a range of practical craft lessons that build toward a cohesive and rewarding learning experience. Participants will explore the invisible engineering behind page-turners. In a crowded and competitive field, quality matters. Readers may arrive looking for pleasure, escape, humour, romance, reinvention, or emotional release, but they stay because the writing is doing its job with precision. This program will also consider how serious themes—grief, class, power, identity, aging, desire, and transformation—can live inside accessible, pleasurable stories. Designed for writers at all levels and career stages, EASY BREEZY BEACH READS invites participants to take light reading seriously as a demanding and rewarding craft. Bring your sunny premises, messy protagonists, half-built hooks, unresolved secrets, emotional undertow, and respect for the reader. The book may feel easy in their hands—but on the page, every effortless moment has to earn its place.
EASY BREEZY BEACH READS is a weeklong online writing intensive focused on the craft, discipline, and deceptive difficulty of writing books that feel effortless to read. Beach reads are often described as “light,” but lightness is not the same as simplicity. Just because something is an easier read does not mean it is an easy write.
While each session is designed to stand alone, the overall writing intensive has been carefully curated to offer a range of practical craft lessons that build toward a cohesive and rewarding learning experience. Participants will explore the invisible engineering behind page-turners.
In a crowded and competitive field, quality matters. Readers may arrive looking for pleasure, escape, humour, romance, reinvention, or emotional release, but they stay because the writing is doing its job with precision. This program will also consider how serious themes—grief, class, power, identity, aging, desire, and transformation—can live inside accessible, pleasurable stories.
Designed for writers at all levels and career stages, EASY BREEZY BEACH READS invites participants to take light reading seriously as a demanding and rewarding craft. Bring your sunny premises, messy protagonists, half-built hooks, unresolved secrets, emotional undertow, and respect for the reader. The book may feel easy in their hands—but on the page, every effortless moment has to earn its place.
All times are in Pacific (Vancouver) time
MON, JULY 20
TUES, JULY 21
WEDS, JULY 22
THURS, JULY 23
FRI, JULY 24
11:00 a.m.
TECH and Welcome (Bryan)
SPRINT w/ PROMPTS (Bryan/Jenn)
SPRINT w/ PROMPTS
(Jenn)
2 p.m.
Workshop /
Session
PANEL DISCUSSION
7 p.m.
4 p.m.
Social
DETAILED SCHEDULE: Full Schedule coming soon!
Join us for a Writers' Social on Tuesday, August 11, from 7:00 - 8:30 PM Pacific by registering here and a Zoom link for the event will be emailed to you.
Email us at hello@bcwriters.ca
PO BOX 3503 Courtenay, BC, V9N 6Z8
Registered Charity Number: 127661718