Wiscon

Folks are posting their Wiscon schedules. This brings out the melancholy, because I won't be attending this year.

This is the first Wiscon I will have missed since 1996. That was Wiscon 20, which was a wowser. I hadn't published at that point. Hadn't even finished CODE. Complete Wannabe. All the previous GoHs attended. Catherine Asaro's first book, Primary Inversion, had just been released, and Lois Bujold and others were wondering aloud whether it would be accepted as Hard SF by the Official Hard SF Designators. Their feeling seemed to be that yes, PI was Hard SF, but they seemed to expect a fight. There was a general sense of them sitting back and waiting to see what shook out, but maybe that was just my perception.

I attended an Ursula Le Guin reading, at which she read portions of the work that later became, iirc, Changing Planes. Too much other stuff to remember. I only recall that I thought that all Wiscons would be like that, until 21 disabused me of that notion. But I got used to the more laid back, usual thing. Attended every year since except for, well, this year.

I have an idea of what the attendees will experience. There will be a distinct, never-ending buzz. You'll feel like you're standing on some summit, overlooking a heretofore unseen vista. It sounds corny, but, well, tough.

It will be very special.

Wiscon

Folks are posting their Wiscon schedules. This brings out the melancholy, because I won't be attending this year.

This is the first Wiscon I will have missed since 1996. That was Wiscon 20, which was a wowser. I hadn't published at that point. Hadn't even finished CODE. Complete Wannabe. All the previous GoHs attended. Catherine Asaro's first book, Primary Inversion, had just been released, and Lois Bujold and others were wondering aloud whether it would be accepted as Hard SF by the Official Hard SF Designators. Their feeling seemed to be that yes, PI was Hard SF, but they seemed to expect a fight. There was a general sense of them sitting back and waiting to see what shook out, but maybe that was just my perception.

I attended an Ursula Le Guin reading, at which she read portions of the work that later became, iirc, Changing Planes. Too much other stuff to remember. I only recall that I thought that all Wiscons would be like that, until 21 disabused me of that notion. But I got used to the more laid back, usual thing. Attended every year since except for, well, this year.

I have an idea of what the attendees will experience. There will be a distinct, never-ending buzz. You'll feel like you're standing on some summit, overlooking a heretofore unseen vista. It sounds corny, but, well, tough.

It will be very special.

The mess in the middle--another perspective

Gacked this from my Media Bistro Daily Update**. Much discussion of the screenwriting version of internal editors, the mess in the middle, the possible messes in the beginning or end, and when you may need to set the thing aside and let it percolate.

http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/genre/stop_going_to_the_refrigerator_and_start_screenwriting_35261.asp

Granted, it does deal with screenwriting, but I've always found the majority of concerns overlap with those of novel writing. The twists and turns of a script are tighter. I also recall reading/hearing once that the ultimate script would consist of no dialogue whatsoever--the story would be told visually, by the scenery, the actors. I think that may work for drama. Comedy? For those Cary Grant--Rosalind Russell wars of words, you need, like, *words*.

But overall, I think it's pretty much more of what we've all read before, but twisted just enough to make it fresh.


**A nice thing to sub to. You will receive course spam from them, but not too many and frankly I would take some of those courses if I could find the time.

The mess in the middle--another perspective

Gacked this from my Media Bistro Daily Update**. Much discussion of the screenwriting version of internal editors, the mess in the middle, the possible messes in the beginning or end, and when you may need to set the thing aside and let it percolate.

http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/genre/stop_going_to_the_refrigerator_and_start_screenwriting_35261.asp

Granted, it does deal with screenwriting, but I've always found the majority of concerns overlap with those of novel writing. The twists and turns of a script are tighter. I also recall reading/hearing once that the ultimate script would consist of no dialogue whatsoever--the story would be told visually, by the scenery, the actors. I think that may work for drama. Comedy? For those Cary Grant--Rosalind Russell wars of words, you need, like, *words*.

But overall, I think it's pretty much more of what we've all read before, but twisted just enough to make it fresh.


**A nice thing to sub to. You will receive course spam from them, but not too many and frankly I would take some of those courses if I could find the time.