WriterCon UK "The Event" at the Coventry Ramada Hotel
I had a blast at WriterCon UK in Coventry! I managed to persuade Col K to come too and so we both had a huge amount of fun.
Friday evening at the Ramada involved silly balloons, awesome goody bags from bogwitch and much laughter. The Quiz comprised questions from assorted fandoms, including BtVS, Stargate, Dr. Who, Pratchett, BSG, GoT, LoTR, The Magic Roundabout, Noggin the Nog, Greek Mythology, and Hard SF to mention a few!
We all went across the road to the Indian restaurant "Mint" and got curried up! We were very loud, drank a lot of beer and clearly surprised the hotel staff when we trooped back to the bar and asked for coffee and tea. They had turned the machines off because no one would want that stuff late at night. They knew better on Saturday!
Saturday brought our first workshop on "Prompts" by brutti_ma_buoni, who asked what got our creative juices going? Don’t ever mention “Red silk” in the same room! We all got given prompts that we had to match to a series of photos she displayed, shouting them out as the images changed. Maybe we’re all very creative but the numbers of prompts that were applied to each picture were amazing-“My heart burns for you” was applied to anything with any two people in. My prompt was “They say a hero will come to save us…” Oh, oh plot bunny time!
Thenwildecate gave a talk about fandom and music which was fascinating. One of the discussions in the break out room showed the diversity of the creative process, with many writers saying that they listened to music when they wrote, be it a specific mood of tune or music from the show. Others said that they wrote in silence so they could “hear” the characters speak in their heads.
The breakout area had really good coffee and tea, fresh baked pastries, (mmm, still warm…) and some of the best conversations, even though many people were busy getting on to the net and surfing away on the hi-bandwidth hotspot that ”audio_n_visual” provided for us.
Then ”speakr2customrs” discussed the need for research in fandom, illustrating it with a number of classic howlers such as the “Blue birds” which don’t fly over the white cliffs…
Then we all went downstairs for lunch and the talking just carried on
Back with the programme ”audio_n_visual” gave a very professional talk on Songvids and how to construct them. He introduced us (well, me anyway) to a number of new concepts using Manga and live action based vids as examples. I truly had no idea of the amount of work that must go into the editing process. Then he spoke about the need to match cuts to the rhythmic signatures of the music showing both good and bad examples. It’s actually astonishing how much you notice this- even someone as completely lacking in musical education as myself.
Then ”quinara” bravely gave a talk on fanpoetry. I had always assumed this meant limericks, cracky potboilers and whiny romantic stuff. Wrong. She showed some examples of some truly, inspirationally good stuff. Then we set about communally editing a Faux Elizabethan style sonnet in the style of Edmund Blackadder. On the whole, I don’t think we actually improved it but it was fun trying.
Then another break and the Ramada excelled itself with more tea, coffee and fresh biccies, also still warm. (Drools. This is not the place to be if you’re on a diet. Or have no willpower. Or both.) As you may have gathered, the breaks were as much a feature of this event as the talks.
daiseechain gave a talk on Smell in writing. For what you might consider a little used angle on a story, prompts gave us whole white boards of scents and smells associated with a place or person.
Lastly came an art workshop, covering three different areas, icon making, use of a photo-adjustment programme and the use of light sources in art. I went to sueworld2003‘s workshop. Using her own magnificent photomanip posters from Torchwood, NuWho, and BtVS, she demonstrated how the use of various PhotoShop processes can alter the light on a subject.
(All of these talks are posted in the writerconukcomm in much more detail so please go and look if anything piques your interest.)
Then we went down to the main restaurant and had our event dinner. The Ramada laid on a very good buffet dinner and gillo kindly provided large bottles of wine from her Italian holiday and a very good time was had by all!
Then, drinkies in hand we returned to the Hillman Hunter Suite for our recital. The musical episode of BtVS, “Once More with Feeling” was played and we sang along. Scripts were provided, parts assigned and the rest of us were Chorus. I do hope there weren’t any guests on the second floor as we were very noisy!
Many of the conversations lasted into the wee small hours, evidence of which came in the late arrivals for breakfast the next day.
Con business began with the Raffle, then the presenting of the “Sparkly Umbrella” awards. Colonel K carried off “Most Luxuriant hair (Men)” and I got “Most Stylish”! Other awards included “Cutest Shoes” and “Most Glitzy Outfit”!
Then we held the AGM for the Con, deciding on the venue for next year -Coventry again since the Ramada looked after us so well. Unfortunately we may have to move the date because of the London Olympics next year. How inconsiderate of them!
Read the Shirt!
Many, many thanks to the Committee for all their hard work in organising and arranging “The Event” and to everyone present for providing a fascinating, friendly and fun-filled weekend, I can’t recommend it enough.