Winter Writing Workshop
Protocolized will host an online writing workshop from February 20-21, 2026. This is a great opportunity to share ideas and get inspired. It’s also an opportunity to meme the genre of protocol fiction and the field of protocol studies into existence. There are four events:
A public town hall and panel looking back on our first year of publishing.
In 2025, we published over 80 posts online and 3 anthologies in print. There were some highlights and bloopers along the way. Our plan is to continue the science fiction renaissance in 2026 and deepen the field of protocol studies while we’re at it, with both awesome stories and well-researched essays.
A public workshop on the dark arts of writing with artificial intelligence.
Everyone’s doing it, no one’s talking about it. Well—at least not nicely. Unlike most publications, we encourage our writers to experiment with AI tools. The purpose of this workshop is to surface what works and what doesn’t when it comes to writing with AI.
An invite-only writers’ room and world-building session.
After a terrific year of fiction experiments guided by our lighthouse principles, Chiang’s Law and Pohl’s Law, it’s time to level things up. The special interest group on protocol fiction has been working hard on defining this new genre, and they’ll be there to help facilitate this session.
An invite-only roundtable on essay writing and non-fiction about protocols.
Protocols can be really boring to read about, despite how important they are. Magisterial counterexamples include books like The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. We want to write more things like that. Join some regular Protocolized contributors to help us design some experiments in nonfiction.
Attendance is free, but space is limited. RSVP and/or apply on our Luma calendar.
If you have any questions, please reach out to the organizers on our Discord server.
