Patrick Weekes visits Esquimalt High School for Canadian Children’s Book Week Friday, May 10th 2019.
Patrick is a talented author, designer, and mentor with a genuine passion to spread the positive powers of storytelling.
Patrick’s Workshops:
8:45 – 9:30 am: Choices and Chapters: Writing in Novels and Video Games
In this presentation, Patrick explores writing prose versus writing for a major video game. Using his experiences as a published novelist and a senior writer at BioWare working on the Dragon Age and Mass Effect game series, Patrick covers how he creates content in each medium, how the flow of information varies when writing in an interactive medium, and how he writes characters that both readers and players empathize with.
This presentation runs approximately 45 minutes, leaving time for audience Q&A afterward. Patrick includes light interactive elements during the presentation, which has proven effective in getting students who like video games to think about story and writing. It is best suited for any students from grades 7 to 12.
10:00 – 10:50 am: People Who Aren’t You: Writing Diversity
In this presentation, Patrick talks about how he writes characters whose race, culture, gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation differ from his. Drawing from his experiences both as a novel writer and a game writer, Patrick addresses the process of designing a character, determining their motivations and mannerisms, and learning to see the world through their eyes. He discusses how he uses sensitivity readers to avoid the pitfalls of stereotypical thinking, and he talks about how to write as an ally without appropriating the culture in question.
This presentation runs approximately 45 minutes leaving time for audience Q&A afterward. Because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter, this presentation is best suited for older and more mature students, ideally those in grades 9-12 or older, who are sincerely interested in writing stories outside of their own lived experiences.
Biography:
Patrick Weekes was born in California and attended Stanford University. In 2005, he moved to Alberta, Canada, where he joined the BioWare writing team. Since then, he has written for the first three games of the Mass Effect series, as well as Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Patrick’s novels include both fantasy and science fiction for teen and adult readers. He is the author of the Rogues of the Republic fantasy heist caper series, as well as the modern-day science-fiction novel Feeder. In addition, he has written tie-in media for BioWare properties: Dragon Age: The Masked Empire, as well as an issue of the Mass Effect: Homeworlds graphic novel series.
Patrick lives in Edmonton with his wife Karin, his two sons, and too many rescued animals. When not writing or dadding, he builds impractically large Lego sets and watches goofy movies with good fight scenes.