I have attended a few conferences over the last year (Worldcon, Boskone, Readercon) and each have had their unique aspects. This past weekend I had the chance to attend Fyrecon, which was again different and I thought I would write a few thoughts about my experience.
To start Fyrecon, though it used to be in person in Utah, is now completely online. The obvious advantage to this is the lack of need to buy flight or hotel, so the financial and time investment is lower. On top of that the cost of the con is remarkably affordable ranging from 1 day memberships of $20 up to $60 for the full con, though there are some ‘Masterclasses” which are extra – $99 and up, though those prices also include the regular full con membership.
Being in Utah, everything is on Mountain time so as an east-coaster I had my mornings free but the talks went from noon into the late evening requiring some planning on my part for family meal prep etc.
There are usually a couple of talks going on at once and, as there are no post-conference recordings (a moderator told us the recordings exist, they just aren’t public, they’re used only to create clips for advertizing the con) you have to choose knowing whatever you don’t attend you will never see.
The community of speakers are heavily winners or otherwise connected to Writers of the Future competition which is either a good thing or an indifferent thing depending on you. I say it could be good as if you want to enter and win that competition, these are all experts. From first place winners to Kary English the person who currently slush reads all entries. The alternative to good is indifferent as I can’t think this can be bad – the talks are not oriented only to the competition, they are on writing craft, and all of the speakers are accomplished writers in general markets having written their own novels, been published in the leading magazines like Apex, Analog and Clarkesworld, or are editors or other roles for those and other magazines.
Overall I really enjoyed the conference. There were not a lot of attendees so in individual rooms you had anywhere from 1 to 13 other participants so plenty of opportunity for you to ask questions. The people were lovely. Every time I entered the con, someone would call out “Hello Gideon!” or otherwise welcome me. The first time I logged in they even guided me through the interface which was simple enough once you had done it once, but none too intuitive on first look, so the guided tour was very welcome.
The talks were on a broad range of topics, mostly on writing craft (plotting, characterization, etc) and the authors unique approaches to that, some interesting less common topics (writing in 2nd person POV, behind the curtain of slushing, writing humor, amongst others), and also some practical topics like using photoshop to make bookcovers if thinking self-publishing and improving your websites SEO. The talks were all well done and I learned from every session I attended.
The only obvious downside is that while online made it financially feasible, online does change the experience. There was a virtual social room but I never entered it – every time I was online it was empty. There did seem to be some socializing that went on in the main room where you enter, but its a hard thing to achieve in an online format. I don’t think any of the online things I have attended have really succeeded with it in a meaningful way.
However, the conclusion is, do I think its worth it? An absolute yes! I will likely attend again next year. And I have nothing to do with the conference so this is not an Ad. If you want to check it out the webpage is fyrecon.com
Anyway, hope this was helpful! If you know of other great learning opportunities for writing craft, let me know in the comments below!
Gideon P. Smith 