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More quick notes from WorldCon/Nippon 2007
Sep. 1st, 2007 07:42 am8/31
First, the ongoing riot in the volunteer center. Our MC has about eight people standing around him, asking, answering, talking . . . and he actually seems to make sense of it all. Incredible.
Teaching writing panel - Gay Haldeman, Delia Sherman, Scott Edelman, Candas Jane Dorsey, Ellen Kushner. During the intros, someone (sorry, I missed who) commented that they got started writing SF because they were reading it and saying to themselves "I can do better than that." (Delia, maybe?). Then Candas started off the discussion with the point that she tells her students "If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him." BUT once something has been written, much can be done to improve it. That theme of perhaps you can't foster creativity, but you can sure teach the craft ran throughout the comments. Oh, and don't bother waiting for the lightning stroke of perfect inspiration.
One comment from Candas - "We need to learn how to transform critical language into something that helps you with a blank page."
Wandering around, a Klingon here, a Japanese anime character there - and a painting contest with Michael Whelan? Audience participation - ideas flying, and then condensing into paint on three parallel easels (Naoyuki Kato and Bob Eggleton were on the other easels - this was billed as a painting demonstration, but was more fun than that!)
The con suite is a mad mix, of course.
Alien characters - G. David Nordley and Cecilia Dart-Thornton. Dealing with the same survival conditions creates some commonalities, so there are human-like qualities, even in elephant, squid, etc. At the same time, economy, history, culture create wide possibilities.
Must make sense, be self-consistent, even if myth or alien. May not be understandable, may be opaque to humans, but needs to be consistent.
And that was about the day. Today is translating for the masquerade rehearsal and maybe a bit of vivid writing? We'll see.
First, the ongoing riot in the volunteer center. Our MC has about eight people standing around him, asking, answering, talking . . . and he actually seems to make sense of it all. Incredible.
Teaching writing panel - Gay Haldeman, Delia Sherman, Scott Edelman, Candas Jane Dorsey, Ellen Kushner. During the intros, someone (sorry, I missed who) commented that they got started writing SF because they were reading it and saying to themselves "I can do better than that." (Delia, maybe?). Then Candas started off the discussion with the point that she tells her students "If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him." BUT once something has been written, much can be done to improve it. That theme of perhaps you can't foster creativity, but you can sure teach the craft ran throughout the comments. Oh, and don't bother waiting for the lightning stroke of perfect inspiration.
One comment from Candas - "We need to learn how to transform critical language into something that helps you with a blank page."
Wandering around, a Klingon here, a Japanese anime character there - and a painting contest with Michael Whelan? Audience participation - ideas flying, and then condensing into paint on three parallel easels (Naoyuki Kato and Bob Eggleton were on the other easels - this was billed as a painting demonstration, but was more fun than that!)
The con suite is a mad mix, of course.
Alien characters - G. David Nordley and Cecilia Dart-Thornton. Dealing with the same survival conditions creates some commonalities, so there are human-like qualities, even in elephant, squid, etc. At the same time, economy, history, culture create wide possibilities.
Must make sense, be self-consistent, even if myth or alien. May not be understandable, may be opaque to humans, but needs to be consistent.
And that was about the day. Today is translating for the masquerade rehearsal and maybe a bit of vivid writing? We'll see.
