Part 2 of My San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Report!

Saturday was the main event for me, seeing China Miéville. I spent most of the convention kicking myself for not ordering KRAKEN in time...I only went to the con for two days because my life has been super-busy of late, and that super-busy-ness prevented me from looking at the schedule until last Wednesday. What a dork am I. (I could have bought the book at a store or at the con, but I am broooooke and wanted him to sign my copy of Perdido Street Station anyway. I don't necessarily need pretty hardbacks anyway...)

But man oh man, what a gracious and charming guy Miéville turned out to be. Some of the sillier people I know had predicted he would be a rather gruff speaker, citing his reputation for being very political (which I'm not) and his rather "unconventional" appearance for an author. Alas, these were the kind of people who think fantasy and science fiction are only for old professors or young men lacking in hygiene and social graces...I digress. Besides, shaved heads and a row of earrings aren't that intimidating; I live in California and have seen much stranger. And I always find it refreshing to see authors who don't look like one would expect.

It sort of ties into a point Miéville made that really stuck with me, that fantasy is not reducible to one thing. It's not one type of story. It's a sub-portion of speculative fiction, a title that should demonstrate how far-reaching the genre can and should be. What the human mind can conceive, what it can speculate on, is incredible, and if we each spend time delving into our own worlds (or multiple worlds, usually, if you're an author), all separately from each other, it's ludicrous to deduce that fantasy is a homogeneous entity. ...Bringing it back around to Miéville's appearance, and that of the large attendance in the room, it's just as silly to assume that fantasy would only appeal to one type or look of person. I really believe there's a speculative fiction story to interest everyone, because it is in humanity's nature to be inquisitive.

I should stop being so wordy, so I will continue this post with...slightly less wordy points:

-Panel started with a reading of his short story, "The Rope is the World". Very interesting thought experiment about life with space elevators, and one of the few stories I can think of where second-person present worked.

-Question and answer session where a lot of the specific questions went over my head, given that I'm rather new to his work. Additional points that I could appreciate:

• We all have more ideas than we even realize, but we often cast out our sillier ideas because of societal conditioning. We're more creative than we know. (Guilty!)
• Fandoms often ruin the things they love. "You know what's awesome? Boba Fett. You know what would be more awesome? More Boba Fett...Well, no. Now you've ruined Boba Fett."
• I admire anyone who stands by their work, even if it has alienated some readers (in reference to one of his more politically-charged novels, which I haven't read).

Overall, he was eloquent and personable, especially during his signing, taking the time to converse with each person a little more than most authors I've met. Of course, I've only run across one or two authors who came anywhere near the "curmudgeon" label, but this was a prime example of how to connect with your fans and conduct yourself. Kudos, and I'm looking forward to reading more of your work, Mr. Miéville.


I had been planning to go to a panel on writing action and characters after the signing, but I received a phone call that a good friend of mine, who had spent a good portion of the previous few weeks remaking his General Grievous costume. It blew my mind last time, and so I dropped everything to go support him (and in the process, fulfilled my nerdy con dream by posing with Predator cosplayers). Action and characters tend to be things I'm better at, so I hope my writing won't suffer too terribly as a result...but perhaps I can find somebody else's con report to fill me in.

I don't expect anyone to have read all the way through this monster. Someday I'll learn to be brief while I'm rambling! But if you did, please share your con experiences, experiences with good or bad author panels, most awesome costumes you've ever seen, etc.

San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Report!

San Diego Comic-Con has long since evolved from being aimed strictly at fans of comic books to being a venue for promotion of media in all forms, from comics and graphic novels to TV shows to films. I love it. I love it I love it I love it. It takes all my nerdy geeky interests and offers me information about them and forums for discussion and fellowship with fellow nerds and free swag. In the last few years, though, I've noticed it has become an increasingly interesting (and useful) convention for fans and writers of genre fiction as well. (Well, these programs have been present for a long time...so perhaps it's just my growing interest in the topic that has made them stand out to me. But I get the feeling that the number and quality of the panels aimed at SF/fantasy fans and writers has grown as well.)

I was only able to attend for two days this year, but managed to make it to one reading- or writing-related panel each day. (Unfortunately, SDCC has grown so large that it's difficult to get into many panels back-to-back, unless you get there early and camp out--and that's assuming the panels you want are in the same room!)

After waiting in line on Friday with a bunch of fantasy fans (including fellow aspiring writer Shannon Messenger and Rare Bird Lit intern Lizzie Andrews), I made it into an urban fantasy panel with an interesting focus: evolving beyond the vampire phenomenon. Don't get me wrong, I love me some vampires, but it was refreshing to have a conversation that revolved around other topics! Mario Acevedo, Marjorie M. Liu, Tanya Huff, Lauren Kate, Merrie Destefano, Jocelynn Drake, and Richard Kadrey were the panelists. I'll admit I haven't read half of them, because urban fantasy isn't a super-favorite genre of mine, but I was familiar enough with most of them and they were all pretty interesting anyway. They had some creative and useful tips for taking existing legendary creatures and putting twists on them. The genre's so saturated, and nearly everything's been done at some point. If you're going to write urban fantasy, it's vital that your fantastic things--creatures, people, whatever--stand out. Why should anyone read your book when there are twelve other evil unicorn tomes on the shelf?

Yes, evil unicorn books came up. I think the idea is awesome and wonder why I'd never heard/thought of it before now. I think from now on, every time I read a passage where a villain's on a horse, I'm going to picture a fiery-eyed, evil unicorn instead. So...actually, my praise for evil unicorns contradicts my point. Pretend evil unicorns are passé. I know, it's hard.

And now from that tangent back to my point: there needs to be something to attract readers to your work and them, something to hook your audience, something new in a tired old trope. They also talked a little about the difficulties of creating truly unique new races. Like anything else, lots of research is involved. But that's OK, because I love research!

I also used the opportunity to pimp out Literary Orange to anyone fairly local, and came up with a few more ideas for authors to invite either this year or to a future event. Woo!

I'll update about day 2 of the con for me (Saturday) tomorrow, and it will mostly be about...China Miéville!

Reason #Whatever to Get an E-Reader Someday

I'm moving in a few weeks, and started packing up my books tonight only to realize that when it comes time to actually move them, it is going to suck.

Oh well, I regret nothing!

I had a blast at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend and will write up reports of the relevant reading/writing panels soon! I've got a whole new wave of inspiration for writing and the author committee for Literary Orange...

San Diego Comic-Con!

Tonight I depart once again for the glorious world of San Diego Comic-Con, one of my favorite annual events. I used to go just for the movie and TV panels and to look at video game merchandise, but over the last couple of years I've really come to appreciate the variety of author- and writing-related panels they put together. I love hearing my favorite genre authors just speak, and even those who write in a sub-genre I don't read or write much can offer some brilliant insights or at least an interesting talk. Book signings are also a plus, although I'm wishing I had consulted the schedule early enough to know to order the hardcover of China Mieville's KRAKEN off Amazon in time...

I'm hoping I don't miss the legion of amazing Predator costumes again this year.

To anyone else going, I hope you have a blast! And if you can't go, don't fret too much: most of the panels end up on YouTube anyway.

Like everything else, learning to plot takes a few tries

My first novel sat in my head for a couple of years. A friend and I were going to tell the story in a different medium, but it never came to pass. I had full visions of several scenes in my head and a burning desire to get the story down in some form, so by the time I decided to commit it to a novel, outlining came quickly. I wrote descriptions of the key scenes, the major plot points...but then had to figure out how to connect them. Sometimes this involved making up new characters or history on the spot. Most of the time I was able to make it work, but I did feel pressed when I occasionally wrote myself into a corner.

I tried a different strategy with my second novel: plotting and then writing it from start to finish. I like structure, but even with my meticulous outline, this technique seemed to stunt me. Because I hadn't thought of the defining moments first, it was harder for me to connect to my characters and learn their personalities, histories, motivations. I tried the highly-recommended technique of simply asking, "What comes next?", but found myself thinking a little too literally: "Well, I guess the protagonists went to sleep. Maybe things were quiet for a few weeks. They just went about their business until...oh yeah, I was supposed to be thinking of the next interesting thing to happen, even if it's supposed to occur weeks, months, years later." I introduced many plot threads that quickly became entangled, and the novel was a bloated mess. Still, I knew I would benefit from having some linear sense of the story at the outset, rather than isolated scenes.

With my third novel in progress, I've been trying to combine the strategies from my first two manuscripts: I've begun thinking in plot threads. I think on one element of the story at a time. Instead of asking "What comes next?" for the story as a whole, which seems too abstract for me, I focus on each particular character's arc, figuring out what their goals will motivate them to do next, creating the "big moments", and working the story from there. After I've got a bit of one thread laid out (or I get mental block), I move on to the next. So far this has helped me keep a balance between all the different threads and prevented me from getting too far into the outline and realizing, "Oh crap, this important character or plot point hasn't had an effect on the story in ages, and where did they go anyway?" because they've gotten lost in the shuffle as I struggled to Make Progress. Since I move periodically between defined plot threads, I don't forget about them and actually am more aware of the need to work toward entwining them all together. Plot threads can't exist in a vacuum; they need to form a greater story!

My hope is that this will prevent me from writing myself into any more corners, or from creating random subplots that go nowhere and have to be excised later from the text. This should save me both time and words. Do I expect it to be a perfect strategy? Probably not. It's inevitable that one will deviate from the outline a bit as certain story elements become more consuming than anticipated. But I think it's a good way to serve my desires both to know the key moments that will reveal the characters and major points of the story and to have a story structured from beginning to end. We'll just have to see. I have a ways to go; I still have to figure out how to tie in the revelation of my antagonists' motives without one of them giving an Evil Monologue or having a protagonist Just Know. But if this strategy doesn't work, I can always try a new one for novel #4.

Anyone who stumbles across this post: How do you usually plot your stories? Are you strict outliners or are you able to just start writing and let it flow organically? (If the latter, I envy you that ability!)