Worldcon 2015 - Saturday

Saturday at Worldcon 2015 was another great day.

Worldbuilding; Martha Wells, Matthew Johnson, Mary Soon Lee, Michael Swanwick, Pat Cadigan. Some great advice to people making stories of all sorts. One takeaway was to do research first and stop researching when you are avoiding writing as that is the best place to be...uncomfortable. Also to find the storyteller you need to be for the story you are writing, so that you can just start writing or develop your world first. Another was to put words on the page, finish the scene and move on. Then you can edit and rehash later as the best thoughts are usually the first ones. A final note was to know all about your world but don't feel you have to tell it all to the reader.

Crafting Short Fiction; Jack Skillingstead, Eileen Gunn, Eric James Stone, C Finlay. Mentioned the differences between a well crafted work (utilitarian and predictable) and an artful one (unpredictable and experimental). Tools are not the boat, in that the techniques are not the story. Story comes first then structure as you have to have a connection to the reader. Also not to leave too many questions for the reader otherwise they will be unsatisfied.

Fantasy Creation for the Bold; Ken Liu and Kate Elliot. Great discussion! State facts about the world and let opinions follow in the words and deeds of your characters. Write how the character, not the reader or writer fits into the setting. Let the world be another character and describe what it is doing often. Generalisations have counter-examples and these have counter-examples; it makes the world believable.

Creation Stories; Robbie Paul, Cheryce Clayton, Mir Plemmonds. The panel focused on First Nations creation stories. It also discussed how to go about researching cultures by asking the source and dealing with it honestly. There was also a discussion of how creation stories are life lessons told as a tale. Also each regions stories are not only about what they are known for but what they want to be known for. Final point was that each person has a spirit guide; it is the part of the self that cannot be explained or given rationalisation.

Writing about Contraversies; William Frank, Mike Glyer, M.J. Locke, Eric Flint, John Scalzi. The main body of this panel was how to conduct research into what is fact and fiction in controversies. It dipped its toes in the current "puppies" issue without naming names. I empathised with the sadness and emotion the panelists had on this topic and how they would hope this will lead to a greater strength in fandom. For the ten commandments of rational debate, go here.

Demigods, Chosen Ones and Rightful Heirs: Can Progress, Merit and Citizens ever Matter in Fantasy?; Darlene Marshall, Katherine Addison, Setsu Uzume, Mary Soon Lee, Anaea Lay. Interesting discussion on what is now a trope, yet still familiar, from popular myths. I got some interesting kernels of ideas from this panel.

The Hugo ceremonies were also today and you can watch all four parts (pre show, show and post show) here. I enjoyed the presentation ceremony and the humor. Although I understood most of what the puppies were attempting to say, I do not agree with the manner in which they said it. I did vote in good faith and read all the Novel, Novella, Novellete, Short Story, Graphic Novel, Related Work, and Presentation Long Form and voted what my opinion was of the works in those catagories. I still think that much harm can be done and continues to be done based on the results of the Hugos but I also have the best hope for Fandom at large. For my previous Hugo post go here.