Writercon 2010
Aug. 10th, 2010 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thismaz*points at icon* Yes, honestly!
ETA: Some extra links to posts of peoples' presentations.
One of the advantages of leaving my report until today is that other people have already done great reports and celebrations of the weekend that I can link to. The ones I have seen so far are:
http://kazzy-cee.livejournal.com/396668.html
http://hils.livejournal.com/4048839.html
http://shapinglight.livejournal.com/995123.html
http://brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com/111215.html
http://lilachigh.livejournal.com/485297.html
If I've missed any, please let me know.
I'm keeping an eye out for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quinara's. I believe she got an A+ for the one she did last year. *g*
The journey down was good. The train was late but (possibly as a result) almost empty. I had company from a very pleasant lady between York and Wakefield (who I totally inhibited in her plan to do some work, by being able to read the case notes she wanted to work on) and for the last half-hour, from a family, who exacted social-worker-lady's revenge for her, by chatting loudly to each other and to me, making it impossible for me to betasparrow2000's next chapter.
hesadevil arrived at the hotel just after me and then peasant_ soon after her. It didn't take long before there was a large group of us chatting in the bar and the plans to go for a walk seemed to fade away. The staff probably thought we were noisy; we certainly cleared the bar of other guests. If so, they had forgotten us from last year and we did our best to remind them, both that afternoon and the next day.
Hesadevil had a wonderful surprise for the outgoing committee, in the form of writerconuk t-shirts. I went and changed into mine, before we settled into the evening. Thank you very much for that. I will wear it with pride.
At six o'clock we gathered in the conference room and were each given our wonderful goody bag, put together bybogwitch with her usual, amazing inventiveness and humour. I already have a picture in mind to go inside the fridge magnet. I really don't know how she manages it on the budget she has.
We then got divided into four teams of five and having each brought two questions with us (and the answers) floundered our way through a multi-fandom quiz, with varying degrees of knowledge and pure guesswork.
We gave the staff an hour or so's reprieve when we went to the Thai restaurant thatjust_sue had booked and had a fantastic meal. I love Thai food and sizzling beef with coconut rice... Yum! Plus Singha Beer (don't ask no questions, Singha Beer don't tell no lies - I can't remember who it was I asked about that line, but it was by the Pogues, which I really should have remembered).
I think I went to bed around midnight. Which didn't make any difference to my waking up time. At 5am I was reminded why I can't stand Nescafe so I went for a walk, found a 24-hour Tesco and bought some good instant coffee which made the rest of the morning, until the hotel started serving breakfast (at 7:30) much more bearable.
After breakfast withpeasant_, kazzy_cee and mirasol (which was very relaxed and leisurely) we all gathered and just_sue welcomed us all, formally, and kicked off the sessions.
speakr2customrs raised some interesting points about writing original characters people don't hate. As someone who only ever creates OCs in order to kill them off, sorta, I found that his observations on complementary characteristics really made me think. Oh, and on the subject of OCs, if you like Merlin and haven't come across this series - The Route To Advancement - I recommend it, since Sir Percy embodies many of speaker's points about how to avoid the Mary Sue/Marty Stu trap, all mixed up in a hapless charm and very engaging humour. In fact he acts as a perfect example of what Speaker described as, Someone to give a fresh perspective, to show the canon characters in a new light, to offer an alternative viewpoint. I can't remember who I mentioned it to, but it isn't slash, although you could call it pre-slash, if you are that way inclined.
I'm no artist, butkazzy_cee's presentations are always interesting. I love learning the secrets of any craft (secret from me, anyway, until someone explains them) and seeing how effective graphics are composed was fascinating. I think that spot the triangle has become a new hobby of mine, when looking at any art - fandom related or not. Plus she played some very clever vids to demo her main points. You can see a summary of her talk, with lots of links, here
hils session was more of a discussion, a sharing of experience and preferences. But there's that craft thing again. Hearing how other people plan, or don't plan, and why, made me consider whether there were alternatives to What I Have Always Done.
ningloreth is a thorough presenter. She backs up her talks with facts and figures and charts. I love that and although I was trying to square the accounts at the same time as listening, I think the listening was the reason I didn't actually end up with my sums coming out right until the next morning. I mean, who could add up sums when there was someone talking about the actual use of (but preferably the avoidance of) the world manhood (and its third cousin, elfhood) in love scenes? *snort*
sueworld2003's talk built on kazzy_cee's and complemented it. Sue talked about sources for graphical elements and issues to think about - like a considering body shape when deciding which head to attach to a particular body - as well as the imagery she builds into her own manips. More tricks of the trade that gave me a better appreciation of the skill involved in creating her wonderful images.
wildecate's session built neatly on hil's but centred on writer's block. The psychology of it and tactics to counter it. Really interesting. We also got to write for two minutes, in response to a prompt. Two minutes turns out to be about 50 words. Who'd have thunk it?
The afternoon ended with a session frommirasol. She gave us a short introduction to the concept of Cos Play and some tricks to doing it cheaply, but then she got out the craft equipment. None of that "here's one I made earlier" stuff, either - it was all interactive. I made a lovely shrink plastic key ring. If you've never seen shrink plastic, well all I can say is, it looks 10 million times better than it sounds.
Supper was very good. And well lubricated, courtesy ofgillo (thank you, Gill). Which was just as well since we then repaired to the comfy chairs where Wildecate had done a wonderful job of setting up the audio of Once More With Feeling, and a slideshow of screen caps to match (very clever way to avoid the public projection part of the copyright). We all sang all parts, with some people taking the spoken lines (I was Dawn and got to do a Dawn!scream). My goodness, but Spike's part is in an awful key - no way I could get that low (or that high if I shifted an octave). Luckily I couldn't hear myself in the mass choir. I lost it completely on two occasions, but people waited very patiently (while laughing at me) until I could choke out Dawn's next line. I can't remember when I last laughed so hard.
I went to bed at about midnight again and slept like the dead until 5:30. That was fine though because I had drinkable coffee to see me through until breakfast, with Kazzy and Peasant again.
Back in the meeting room,curiouswombat gave us a slideshow, to demonstrate how photos can be good story prompts. She certainly had some examples that could spark ideas in my mind.
The AGM went fine. We even got a volunteer for one of the committee posts (all cheerdaiseechain and many thanks) while the other two didn't need their arms twisting too far up their backs. Then the raffle, from which I got a lovely, shiny new notebook and a Heroes mug.
We hung around in the bar for a while before Peasant, Just_Sue and I wandered off to the station for our trains. I was home by 6:30 and have slept like a log for the last two nights since.
If you are in the UK and want to meet up with a crowd of relaxed and friendly people who can talk fandom, you really should consider coming along next year. It will be in Coventry again. The hotel is good and very tolerant of our noise. The company is fantastic and the talks are always informative. If you're alone and nervous, never fear - by the end of the first evening, you'll feel like you've known us all for years. The details will be posted on the LiveJournal community![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
writerconuk, probably in the new year, but there is more to do there, before that. There is a banner challenge with some wonderful graphics to spark your writerly ideas and there will be at least one other meet up before next summer. Do come and have a look around. We're a nice bunch.
ETA: Some extra links to posts of peoples' presentations.
One of the advantages of leaving my report until today is that other people have already done great reports and celebrations of the weekend that I can link to. The ones I have seen so far are:
http://kazzy-cee.livejournal.com/396668.html
http://hils.livejournal.com/4048839.html
http://shapinglight.livejournal.com/995123.html
http://brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com/111215.html
http://lilachigh.livejournal.com/485297.html
If I've missed any, please let me know.
I'm keeping an eye out for
quinara's. I believe she got an A+ for the one she did last year. *g*The journey down was good. The train was late but (possibly as a result) almost empty. I had company from a very pleasant lady between York and Wakefield (who I totally inhibited in her plan to do some work, by being able to read the case notes she wanted to work on) and for the last half-hour, from a family, who exacted social-worker-lady's revenge for her, by chatting loudly to each other and to me, making it impossible for me to beta
sparrow2000's next chapter.hesadevil arrived at the hotel just after me and then peasant_ soon after her. It didn't take long before there was a large group of us chatting in the bar and the plans to go for a walk seemed to fade away. The staff probably thought we were noisy; we certainly cleared the bar of other guests. If so, they had forgotten us from last year and we did our best to remind them, both that afternoon and the next day.Hesadevil had a wonderful surprise for the outgoing committee, in the form of writerconuk t-shirts. I went and changed into mine, before we settled into the evening. Thank you very much for that. I will wear it with pride.
At six o'clock we gathered in the conference room and were each given our wonderful goody bag, put together by
bogwitch with her usual, amazing inventiveness and humour. I already have a picture in mind to go inside the fridge magnet. I really don't know how she manages it on the budget she has.We then got divided into four teams of five and having each brought two questions with us (and the answers) floundered our way through a multi-fandom quiz, with varying degrees of knowledge and pure guesswork.
We gave the staff an hour or so's reprieve when we went to the Thai restaurant that
just_sue had booked and had a fantastic meal. I love Thai food and sizzling beef with coconut rice... Yum! Plus Singha Beer (don't ask no questions, Singha Beer don't tell no lies - I can't remember who it was I asked about that line, but it was by the Pogues, which I really should have remembered).I think I went to bed around midnight. Which didn't make any difference to my waking up time. At 5am I was reminded why I can't stand Nescafe so I went for a walk, found a 24-hour Tesco and bought some good instant coffee which made the rest of the morning, until the hotel started serving breakfast (at 7:30) much more bearable.
After breakfast with
peasant_, kazzy_cee and mirasol (which was very relaxed and leisurely) we all gathered and just_sue welcomed us all, formally, and kicked off the sessions.speakr2customrs raised some interesting points about writing original characters people don't hate. As someone who only ever creates OCs in order to kill them off, sorta, I found that his observations on complementary characteristics really made me think. Oh, and on the subject of OCs, if you like Merlin and haven't come across this series - The Route To Advancement - I recommend it, since Sir Percy embodies many of speaker's points about how to avoid the Mary Sue/Marty Stu trap, all mixed up in a hapless charm and very engaging humour. In fact he acts as a perfect example of what Speaker described as, Someone to give a fresh perspective, to show the canon characters in a new light, to offer an alternative viewpoint. I can't remember who I mentioned it to, but it isn't slash, although you could call it pre-slash, if you are that way inclined. I'm no artist, but
kazzy_cee's presentations are always interesting. I love learning the secrets of any craft (secret from me, anyway, until someone explains them) and seeing how effective graphics are composed was fascinating. I think that spot the triangle has become a new hobby of mine, when looking at any art - fandom related or not. Plus she played some very clever vids to demo her main points. You can see a summary of her talk, with lots of links, here hils session was more of a discussion, a sharing of experience and preferences. But there's that craft thing again. Hearing how other people plan, or don't plan, and why, made me consider whether there were alternatives to What I Have Always Done.ningloreth is a thorough presenter. She backs up her talks with facts and figures and charts. I love that and although I was trying to square the accounts at the same time as listening, I think the listening was the reason I didn't actually end up with my sums coming out right until the next morning. I mean, who could add up sums when there was someone talking about the actual use of (but preferably the avoidance of) the world manhood (and its third cousin, elfhood) in love scenes? *snort*sueworld2003's talk built on kazzy_cee's and complemented it. Sue talked about sources for graphical elements and issues to think about - like a considering body shape when deciding which head to attach to a particular body - as well as the imagery she builds into her own manips. More tricks of the trade that gave me a better appreciation of the skill involved in creating her wonderful images.wildecate's session built neatly on hil's but centred on writer's block. The psychology of it and tactics to counter it. Really interesting. We also got to write for two minutes, in response to a prompt. Two minutes turns out to be about 50 words. Who'd have thunk it?The afternoon ended with a session from
mirasol. She gave us a short introduction to the concept of Cos Play and some tricks to doing it cheaply, but then she got out the craft equipment. None of that "here's one I made earlier" stuff, either - it was all interactive. I made a lovely shrink plastic key ring. If you've never seen shrink plastic, well all I can say is, it looks 10 million times better than it sounds.Supper was very good. And well lubricated, courtesy of
gillo (thank you, Gill). Which was just as well since we then repaired to the comfy chairs where Wildecate had done a wonderful job of setting up the audio of Once More With Feeling, and a slideshow of screen caps to match (very clever way to avoid the public projection part of the copyright). We all sang all parts, with some people taking the spoken lines (I was Dawn and got to do a Dawn!scream). My goodness, but Spike's part is in an awful key - no way I could get that low (or that high if I shifted an octave). Luckily I couldn't hear myself in the mass choir. I lost it completely on two occasions, but people waited very patiently (while laughing at me) until I could choke out Dawn's next line. I can't remember when I last laughed so hard. I went to bed at about midnight again and slept like the dead until 5:30. That was fine though because I had drinkable coffee to see me through until breakfast, with Kazzy and Peasant again.
Back in the meeting room,
curiouswombat gave us a slideshow, to demonstrate how photos can be good story prompts. She certainly had some examples that could spark ideas in my mind. The AGM went fine. We even got a volunteer for one of the committee posts (all cheer
daiseechain and many thanks) while the other two didn't need their arms twisting too far up their backs. Then the raffle, from which I got a lovely, shiny new notebook and a Heroes mug. We hung around in the bar for a while before Peasant, Just_Sue and I wandered off to the station for our trains. I was home by 6:30 and have slept like a log for the last two nights since.
If you are in the UK and want to meet up with a crowd of relaxed and friendly people who can talk fandom, you really should consider coming along next year. It will be in Coventry again. The hotel is good and very tolerant of our noise. The company is fantastic and the talks are always informative. If you're alone and nervous, never fear - by the end of the first evening, you'll feel like you've known us all for years. The details will be posted on the LiveJournal community
writerconuk, probably in the new year, but there is more to do there, before that. There is a banner challenge with some wonderful graphics to spark your writerly ideas and there will be at least one other meet up before next summer. Do come and have a look around. We're a nice bunch.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 02:56 pm (UTC)Yes, some of those banners have *got* to have stories attached to them.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 05:57 pm (UTC)I've just about recovered today LOL!!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 05:35 am (UTC)*points at icon and grins* If you ever get the chance to come to the UK, I hope you would make it to Coventry in August. And it would be even better if you decided to visit the North of England, as well. That would be truly awesome.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 02:44 pm (UTC)Sounds like you had an awesome time, hon. I'm so pleased. I've been trawling through the presentations that have been posted so far and they are all terrific. You know you're going to have to do a presentation next year since you're not on the committee any more!!.....
s xxx
no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:15 am (UTC)*flaps hands* Shhh, shhh, who have you been talking to? Don't you dare mention that idea anywhere near the new committee. Presentations and me do not go together. *g*