Catching up: ConFusion 2009
So the big thing this year was I did panels! And I did not embarrass myself or spontaneously combust in stage fright!
I did two media panels: A summary of the SF tv this year, and the "What's your personal shark point" panel, which was a hoot, due to a good audience and great co-panelists Joanna Lowenstein and Candra Gill (I attended the con as my fannish identity this year (which entertains me even more in light of some of the lj/fandom pseudonymity/identity "discussion" that came out of Race Fail 2009)).
The big one though was the fanfic panel. At ConClave, vidensadastra, Anne Harris and I pulled a collective "that fan" and all but took over the fanfic panel. In the end it was a good time all around, but it really cemented for me an
issue I've seen on every fanfic panel at an SF con - they're never run by people who actually write fic. Sometimes they have people who read a bit, or people who used to write it, but I've never attended a fic panel run by people who are active in fanfic fandom. Part of the problem is that fanfic fandom is not sf fandom (whereas media fandom seems more conversant and deeply engaged with fanfic fandom).
So Anne said the three of us should do a fic panel at ConFusion, and lo, we did. And it went FABULOUSLY. We had a great turnout, the audience was interested and engaged (we even had a couple of kids who were active in videogame fandoms), and my co-panelists rocked.
We approached it as a 101 course: What is it, who writes it, why do they write it, and where do you find it. I'd love to do it again, and also do a more advanced course, really getting into the transformative, remix and commentary aspects of fanfic.
Anyway, me being me, I made a couple of handouts of the outline we came up with, and links to archives and recs:
Fanfiction 101: what is it and how to write it better (PDF)
Fic archives and recs handout (PDF)
These were designed to be very basic introductory notes to get things started, not an exhaustive description or discussion of fanfic, media fandom, or fanfic fandom, and are slightly revised and updated versions of the ones I handed out at the con.
And now I totally have the paneling bug, despite years of chickening out whenever fairmer would poke me to get on a panel already. So of course I'm going to make her do a panel with me next year on one of our favorite topics to dissect and discuss, the Mary Sue.
The rest of the con was fab as usual, hanging out in the bar with the usual suspects and only mostly embarrassing ourselves with our drunken hilarity (I'm the one giving a great view of my sinuses).
(Just as an aside to the non-fannish folk who know me IRL. For various reasons I am trying to keep this lj identity and my RL name unassociated. Please don't link them together or pass this lj on to anyone who isn't already aware of it.)
I did two media panels: A summary of the SF tv this year, and the "What's your personal shark point" panel, which was a hoot, due to a good audience and great co-panelists Joanna Lowenstein and Candra Gill (I attended the con as my fannish identity this year (which entertains me even more in light of some of the lj/fandom pseudonymity/identity "discussion" that came out of Race Fail 2009)).
The big one though was the fanfic panel. At ConClave, vidensadastra, Anne Harris and I pulled a collective "that fan" and all but took over the fanfic panel. In the end it was a good time all around, but it really cemented for me an
issue I've seen on every fanfic panel at an SF con - they're never run by people who actually write fic. Sometimes they have people who read a bit, or people who used to write it, but I've never attended a fic panel run by people who are active in fanfic fandom. Part of the problem is that fanfic fandom is not sf fandom (whereas media fandom seems more conversant and deeply engaged with fanfic fandom).
So Anne said the three of us should do a fic panel at ConFusion, and lo, we did. And it went FABULOUSLY. We had a great turnout, the audience was interested and engaged (we even had a couple of kids who were active in videogame fandoms), and my co-panelists rocked.
We approached it as a 101 course: What is it, who writes it, why do they write it, and where do you find it. I'd love to do it again, and also do a more advanced course, really getting into the transformative, remix and commentary aspects of fanfic.
Anyway, me being me, I made a couple of handouts of the outline we came up with, and links to archives and recs:
Fanfiction 101: what is it and how to write it better (PDF)
Fic archives and recs handout (PDF)
These were designed to be very basic introductory notes to get things started, not an exhaustive description or discussion of fanfic, media fandom, or fanfic fandom, and are slightly revised and updated versions of the ones I handed out at the con.
And now I totally have the paneling bug, despite years of chickening out whenever fairmer would poke me to get on a panel already. So of course I'm going to make her do a panel with me next year on one of our favorite topics to dissect and discuss, the Mary Sue.
The rest of the con was fab as usual, hanging out in the bar with the usual suspects and only mostly embarrassing ourselves with our drunken hilarity (I'm the one giving a great view of my sinuses).
(Just as an aside to the non-fannish folk who know me IRL. For various reasons I am trying to keep this lj identity and my RL name unassociated. Please don't link them together or pass this lj on to anyone who isn't already aware of it.)