Continuing the trend of making these threads nearly a year in advance, I am making one for MFF2014. Considering I live 15 minutes from Rosemont, it seems required I attend next year. 
MFF is a great con in most respects, but the writing track has been disappointing. Iāve been trying to help improve it. In 2011 it was part of the āArt and Literatureā track, which ended up being almost entirely about Art (as I recall there wasnāt a single panel devoted to writing). It was broken out in 2012 and there were at least two writing panels. At the first one, all of the panelists were no-shows. At the second, I was one of three panelists scheduled and ended up being the only one to show up; while I had some material to cover I hadnāt expected to have to carry the whole hour by myself. In 2013 there were 4 or 5 panels on the schedules - in the first iteration of the schedule a couple of them were scheduled opposite one another (they moved one after I said something). Even so, something like 3 of the 5 were scheduled on Sunday, which was disappointing in that panels tend to be better attended Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday, people are getting into a sort of burn-out and the con is winding down so panel attendance is lower. One of the three panels I tried to attend was cancelled.
I would really like to see MFF develop a stronger writing track. To be fair, I donāt claim to know what kind of problems or issues the writing track lead the last two years has had to deal with, and the old advice about not criticizing someone until youāve walked a mile in his shoes comes to mind. I am currently on registration staff for MFF but Iāve thought about offering to be writing track lead instead.
Thatās really surprising (and disappointing) that a major con like that wouldnāt have better writing track representation. 
Hope it improves.
Iād totally go if we could bunk at your place so that way your family and I could have the most awkward of conversations.
āSo, uhā¦ what are you doing in our house? And why are you wearing an otter suit?ā
And why did you bring 3,000 pages of furry erotica and a pack of red pens?
Shouldnāt you be leaving our house to go to that convention you came to see?
But I might be there to see them. I like making friends.
Mars will be here to view this thread soon so maybe we should stop hijacking it =)
I last attended MFF in 2009, and noticed a similar problem. I was a panelist in several writing panels, and they were well attended and had lively discussions, but most the other writing panels that I was interested in attending myself were scheduled at the same time as one of the panels I was on.
Iām attending Midwest FurFest this year. Itās been five years since I last attended, so Iām overdue.
Iāve never been, but if I could get a ride from FL and crash space, Iād host a writing panel 
Iāve voiced my complaints earlier in this thread about MFFās writing track in recent years, so in an effort to do something about it, Iām going to plan to be a panelist on at least two, possibly up to five panels.
Now I just need to figure out what the panels would be about. They wouldnāt have to be anything clever or original. Panels covering the basics like plot, character, setting, conflict, editing, publishing, and so forth would be great to have. I can always refer to other conventionsā schedules to get more ideas if necessary.
The other thing I would like is to get other co-panelists. While I can lead a panel on my own if I have to, I would much rather have a couple of other co-panelists to help carry the discussion. Iām already trying to contact the programming and track leads to find out what panels have already been requested, and if any of those could use a co-panelist, I might try to get on board. Otherwise, Iāll likely be back here bugging the guild.
Two to five writing panels at a con with a poor writing history? Damn! At the Australian cons we only have one writing panel per con and then only because Iāve been bugging the con staff about it! I really need to get myself out to one of the US cons before long: sounds an absolute blast. Hope it all goes well for you; would love to be involved, but alas!
I finally heard back from the track lead, whose response was, āNot much has come together yet. Weād be happy to have you as a panelist.ā
As noted previously I would prefer to have co-panelists to help carry the discussion, so Iām putting out a call here: Who among you will be attending Midwest FurFest and would be willing to be a panelist on at least one writing panel?
Updateā¦ Iāve submitted requests for three panels.
The first is āWriting 101ā, a two-hour long panel (I may yet decide to split it into two one-hour panels) covering the basics of writing - plot, character development, settings and world building, and other topics like conflict, dialogue, description, and so forth.
The second is āWhy Furry?ā, discussing why we use furry characters and questions like whether they should have some animal characteritics vs. being superficially furry humans.
The third is āFurry Literature Is Where You Find Itā, about the various sources of furry literature, including mass market, small press, online repositories, and so forth. This is geared much more toward readers/fans of furry literature.
I am still looking for and would welcome co-panelists for any or all of these.
Update: I now have two co-panelists for the first two panels, one of whom will also be a co-panelist on the third. Although Iāve traded notes with both, I havenāt met either of them before in person, so this will be interesting.
I would be comfortable going to the con with this lineup, but it would be nice to get one more panelist for the third. Given that itās more reader/fan oriented, Iām not concerned about writing credentials but it should be someone who has read a lot.
Tomorrow I head out to MFF, and last night I learned that one of the co-panelists who was supposed to do the panels with me had a scheduling conflict arise and will be unable to attend the convention. If anyone reading this is going to be at MFF and would like to be a panelist with me, please give me a shout.