Norwescon: Saturday
Apr. 22nd, 2006 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jpskewedthroneAfter surviving Friday and all its myriad panels and meetings and parties, I woke up early (again) on Saturday and got ready for the day's events . . . which included a reading, a signing, a panel, a party, and an afternoon with my brother.
But first, before I could even get into the day, I get a call from my editor. She's read farther into the revisions and she now has questions. Relief is gone. I'm now concerned. But she doesn't want to talk about it now, so we set up a breakfast meeting for Sunday. She attempts to reassure me that the new questions aren't big things at all, but of course that doesn't work.
The reading went fine. I was hoping for more people (of course), but got 6, which isn't bad. I've had readings at cons where no one shows up and I end up eating my entire bag of chocolate, so . . . I talked about the book, what it was about, why I enjoyed writing it, and set up the scene I was going to read. Then I read it. Not much exciting here. I then took questions from the audience and prompted them to eat more chocolate. I think the majority of them ran down to the dealers room to buy the book (based on what I learned on Sunday).
I ran down to the signings. They'd been split up into two sessions and I was of course relegated to the "non-big-name" signing. Meaning it wasn't the one hosting the GOHs. I expected no one to show up. But someone showed and actually had the book. So I signed that. Someone else came up and said they had the book . . . but had left it at home. I signed a postcard for them. I also pushed magnets on those walking by. A bunch of people came up and had me sign the Norwescon booklet with pictures of all the pros and a brief bio in them.
After the signing, I ran to the panel . . . and arrived just on time. This was on Hiking the Enchanted Forest, or setting in fantasy. Of course, alot of fantasy is dependent on setting and the first thing that seemed to jump out was that everyone was tired of medieval fantasies. I don't agree. If that were the case, we wouldn't have any because no one would be buying them. What I tried to emphasize was that as a writer you actually USE the traditional settings to save yourself some time. If you say "tavern," everyone has an instant image of a room with tables and chairs and a hearth and wenches. Ale gets slapped on tables and the wenches scream when pinched. You don't need to mention this because the reader supplies it automatically. What the writer HAS to mention is what about the setting is DIFFERENT, what makes this setting different (and if there isn't anything, then nothing gets mentioned) from all the others. Usually this is something needed for plot or character, sometimes it's something about the culture or city. In the end though, it's the differences that get mentioned and emphasized. I also returned to the theme that everything mentioned must do more than one thing. You can't just mention the setting . . . it has to DO something, either advance the plot or develop the character in some way.
One thing mentioned was that you can use setting to tell the reader alot about the character. A person starving will notice the bowl of fruit when they walk into the room first, while someone who's just finished a seven-course meal probably won't even notice the fruit is there. So use the setting to say something about character.
Also use it to say something about culture. What makes your world/culture different? Does the tavern have a sheave of wheat tied above the hearth because they worship an earth god, or is it a cutting of holly because it's Winter's Eve?
And lastly, setting is absolutely great for mood. What you mention will make the reader feel a certain way, give the reading an atmosphere (a dark forbidding forest or a sunlight plain). Use it wisely.
After this panel I met up with my brother for an afternoon of family visiting. I don't get to see him often, maybe once a year if I'm lucky, so this was a great way to spend the afternoon. We did nothing important--ate lunch, played games, ate dinner--and then it was back to the con.
Because that night was the public DAW party. I got a little tipsy (the white russian I got was extremely heavy on the alcohol), possibly because of the earlier phone call from my editor. I chat. I run into my editor. We talk, but not about revisions. She reassures me again and I go for another drink. But by this time the late nights and early mornings are starting to catch up to me so I leave, check out a few of the other parties, and then retire.
So Saturday wasn't as active as Friday, but it still had its moments. I had to refresh the magnets repeatedly, and in fact had run out of magnets to put down. I made 160 of them, but kept back 10 for my pocket and the plane trip back.
I'll finish with the Sunday report tomorrow, which consists of my breakfast with my editor and the plane trip back. Then it will be back to just reports on revisions (for a while) and then the dreaded beginning of book 3.
But first, before I could even get into the day, I get a call from my editor. She's read farther into the revisions and she now has questions. Relief is gone. I'm now concerned. But she doesn't want to talk about it now, so we set up a breakfast meeting for Sunday. She attempts to reassure me that the new questions aren't big things at all, but of course that doesn't work.
The reading went fine. I was hoping for more people (of course), but got 6, which isn't bad. I've had readings at cons where no one shows up and I end up eating my entire bag of chocolate, so . . . I talked about the book, what it was about, why I enjoyed writing it, and set up the scene I was going to read. Then I read it. Not much exciting here. I then took questions from the audience and prompted them to eat more chocolate. I think the majority of them ran down to the dealers room to buy the book (based on what I learned on Sunday).
I ran down to the signings. They'd been split up into two sessions and I was of course relegated to the "non-big-name" signing. Meaning it wasn't the one hosting the GOHs. I expected no one to show up. But someone showed and actually had the book. So I signed that. Someone else came up and said they had the book . . . but had left it at home. I signed a postcard for them. I also pushed magnets on those walking by. A bunch of people came up and had me sign the Norwescon booklet with pictures of all the pros and a brief bio in them.
After the signing, I ran to the panel . . . and arrived just on time. This was on Hiking the Enchanted Forest, or setting in fantasy. Of course, alot of fantasy is dependent on setting and the first thing that seemed to jump out was that everyone was tired of medieval fantasies. I don't agree. If that were the case, we wouldn't have any because no one would be buying them. What I tried to emphasize was that as a writer you actually USE the traditional settings to save yourself some time. If you say "tavern," everyone has an instant image of a room with tables and chairs and a hearth and wenches. Ale gets slapped on tables and the wenches scream when pinched. You don't need to mention this because the reader supplies it automatically. What the writer HAS to mention is what about the setting is DIFFERENT, what makes this setting different (and if there isn't anything, then nothing gets mentioned) from all the others. Usually this is something needed for plot or character, sometimes it's something about the culture or city. In the end though, it's the differences that get mentioned and emphasized. I also returned to the theme that everything mentioned must do more than one thing. You can't just mention the setting . . . it has to DO something, either advance the plot or develop the character in some way.
One thing mentioned was that you can use setting to tell the reader alot about the character. A person starving will notice the bowl of fruit when they walk into the room first, while someone who's just finished a seven-course meal probably won't even notice the fruit is there. So use the setting to say something about character.
Also use it to say something about culture. What makes your world/culture different? Does the tavern have a sheave of wheat tied above the hearth because they worship an earth god, or is it a cutting of holly because it's Winter's Eve?
And lastly, setting is absolutely great for mood. What you mention will make the reader feel a certain way, give the reading an atmosphere (a dark forbidding forest or a sunlight plain). Use it wisely.
After this panel I met up with my brother for an afternoon of family visiting. I don't get to see him often, maybe once a year if I'm lucky, so this was a great way to spend the afternoon. We did nothing important--ate lunch, played games, ate dinner--and then it was back to the con.
Because that night was the public DAW party. I got a little tipsy (the white russian I got was extremely heavy on the alcohol), possibly because of the earlier phone call from my editor. I chat. I run into my editor. We talk, but not about revisions. She reassures me again and I go for another drink. But by this time the late nights and early mornings are starting to catch up to me so I leave, check out a few of the other parties, and then retire.
So Saturday wasn't as active as Friday, but it still had its moments. I had to refresh the magnets repeatedly, and in fact had run out of magnets to put down. I made 160 of them, but kept back 10 for my pocket and the plane trip back.
I'll finish with the Sunday report tomorrow, which consists of my breakfast with my editor and the plane trip back. Then it will be back to just reports on revisions (for a while) and then the dreaded beginning of book 3.
