I attended ReaderCon again this year and, other than a few missteps with the registration/online check-in process the con appeared to go smoothly this year. I thought I would give a few of my lasting thoughts from it here.
I started off attending a workshop on writing physical action. I think the main take away from this was to get up off your feet and try and act some of it out. Much like reading your writing aloud, acting your action highlights physical impossibilities that you have described and gets you to think more carefully about textures, weight, the actual physicality of what your characters are doing.
In setting as character we didn’t deal so much with setting as an actual character so much as how the same setting is different for each character and so is in many ways an extension of character.
P Djeli Clark spoke about how he took advantage of his 15 minutes of fame and how he tried to maximise the opportunity. The message was, be prepared for it when it comes. He had lots of trunk stories he was able to use as the invitations came in for anthologies and this approach not only meant he could deliver but also landed him some more prizes.
A few weeks ago here I wrote a blog post on reading like a writer so I was quite intrigued to see a session on this. My scribbled notes from that include the advice to not read more than one book from any author as there is more to learn from a new/different author than that same one (this thought hurt my reading as a reader heart!) and when trying to learn from reading choose one thing to learn POV/characterisation/prose etc and then read the short story or first chapter 10 times through focusing ever more detailed on that aspect of writing and how the author did it.
As always I still found some of my favorite moments were in Kaffeklatsches (this year with Scott Andrews editor at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Ellen Datlow of Tor.com (etc) and Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld) where it was a more personal exchange, and my absolute favorite aspect was in connecting one on one with other writers.
Anyway, I hope this gives you some insights into this years con! As always questions comments or requests for more content welcome in the comments below
Gideon P. Smith 