My Panel Schedule at Norwescon 2015
As I threatened/promised, here's my schedule for Norwescon. If anyone wants to chat about these topics in the comments, I would be happy to, as I am currently in fandom-related nerd overdrive. Also, I will steal your ideas and use them to make me look smart in front of strangers. Hooray!
Work In Progress
Thu 6:00pm-7:00pm - Cascade 6
Rosa Acicularis (M), Laurie Noel, Tartan, Mimi Noyes
Writing fanfiction can be a long and involved process, with stories often spiraling into the length of novels, if not a series of novels. For many writers that kind of work is hard to sustain without feedback and love from their readers, but many readers are wary of reading WIPs, lest they become addicted to it only for the story to be abandoned by its creator. We’ll be talking about the experience from both the side of the writer as well as that of the audience. How do you keep yourself inspired to finish your story? What do you do if you can’t finish it? What are the benefits of reading a WIP and how can you as a reader help support your favorite authors to finish their work?
Reclaiming & Recreating Popular Culture
Thu 9:00pm-10:00pm - Cascade 7&8
Rosa Acicularis (M), Jamie Bort, Rachael Sabotini, thatworldinverted, Minim Calibre
The writing, and reading, of fanfiction goes beyond simply individuals adoring a show or a book and wanting to play in that universe. The creation of fanfiction is the audiences of the world reclaiming control over the characters and stories that they love and recreating popular culture as they want to experience it, not as companies and corporations decide for us. Discover how fanfiction isn’t just people obsessing about the same thing over and over again, but about exploring new ideas, new facets, and aspects of characters and worlds that the popular media would never dream of exploring.
Feminism in Fandom
Fri 10:00am-11:00am - Evergreen 1&2
Sheye Anne Blaze, Rosa Acicularis, Tifa Robles, Meg Elison, Lola Watson
The face of feminism has changed over the decades, from the suffrage struggles of the first wave, the women’s liberation movement of the second wave, and the intersectionality of the third wave. Women are well-represented in local fandom, but a lot of fan media is still a boys’ club. And then there are the comic book heroines with their improbable poses and battle lingerie… What does all this say about the future of feminism? And how do we inspire the next generation of girls to love the same genres we do? How do we overcome issues like the Bechdel test?
Believable Magic
Fri 2:00pm-3:00pm - Evergreen 3&4
Laura Anne Gilman (M), Django Wexler, Rosa Acicularis, B. D. Kellmer, Corry L. Lee
Creating a magical system isn’t easy. What are some good sources to pull from for the underpinnings of your magic? What can be borrowed from history, mythology or religion that will make your magical system more believable?
Fan Fiction vs Original Fiction
Fri 4:00pm-5:00pm - Cascade 5
Diana Copland (M), Laura Anne Gilman, Rosa Acicularis, Rachael Sabotini
Many well known and respected authors started off as fanfiction authors. Some authors have even gone as far as to remove the serial numbers, as it were, from their fan fiction and release it as original fiction, or used parts of it in their novels. But are there skills that you need to write original fiction that you don’t learn through writing fan fiction? What can you learn from fan fiction and fannish writing communities that is important and useful for writing in general?
The Fine Art of Fanfiction
Fri 7:00pm-8:00pm - Cascade 5
Diana Copland (M), Rosa Acicularis, Rachael Sabotini, Jamie Bort
Have you heard about fanfic but only in the worst ways? Is your idea of fanfic that it’s a bunch of drivel, written by talentless hacks? This panel is here to prove a point -- that like all forms of creative endeavors, be they novels, movies, or television shows, there is The Bad and The Ugly, but there is also The Good. Our panelists will read short excerpts from some of their favorite fanfic stories, each passage selected to represent The Good: the talent, the skill, and the artistry to be found in fanfiction.
Canon, Fanon, & Fic
Sat 4:00pm-5:00pm - Cascade 5
Berlynn Wohl (M), Rosa Acicularis, DameRuth, Tartan
The relationship between canon, fanon, and fanfiction is a curious one. Just how far can you stray from canon and still remain true to the characters and the world? Is fanon as, or more, important than canon when writing fanfiction? Can you read (or more difficult, write?) fanfiction where you don’t know the canon? We will discuss how all of these things interact, influence, and change our perceptions of the fandoms they explore.
The Freedom of Limits: A Fanfic Workshop
Sat 6:00pm-8:00pm - Cascade 12
Rosa Acicularis (M), Minim Calibre
Sometimes because there are too many options, writing fanfiction can seem overwhelming. Where do you start? What’s it about? What makes it interesting? However, by putting into place some rules and restrictions you can actually free the mind. Challenges require creative and inventive solutions and help provide a structure from which a story can be crafted. After a brief introduction, we will brainstorm fandoms and different restrictions and then get to writing! During the last 30 minutes, those who wish to can share their stories.
Myths About Fan Fiction
Sun 10:00am-11:00am - Cascade 5
Rosa Acicularis (M), Berlynn Wohl, Jamie Bort, Diana Copland
How many negative things have you heard people say about fan fiction? It’s just Mary Sue self-indulgence. Only women write it. It’s all smut. It’s breaking the law! It isn’t “real” writing. People who write fanfic aren’t creative or talented enough to write “real” books. Our panelists will critically examine the various misconceptions about fan fiction and explore the value and fascination that causes thousands to write it and thousands more to read it.