WriterCon: win edition!

[rm]

So hey, lots of stuff about WriterCon was great.

Stuff that was made of win:

The ConSuite, the hotel restaurant and MNP as a whole were really, really friendly to special dietary needs and I only felt like a freak once. Celiac disease is a really hard symbolic illness for me at cons -- I literally cannot break bread with people. For this stuff not to be fucked up changes everything.

MNP is a funny, funny city and has a cool fountain involving water and metal that clearly stands over the hub for Torchwood 17.2.

The vending room! I shared a vending table with marthawells and elleparker. Martha and I both made sales and I heard lots of people saying they weer going to get Elle's book (it's ebook only, so we couldn't do it at the table).

Great audiences! You guys, I've never, ever talked about the writing fight scenes stuff as official content before -- it's more like wacky shit I rant about at bars or sometimes in this journal. I was nervous as hell and you all were great. I didn't have to poke people with sticks to get them to talk, I had fun and I learned a lot, which is an awesome experience to have as someone leading a workshop! Folks at the Language of Love (with ladycat777, versaphile and invisible_lift as the other panelists) were also rad. Thank you for coming and literally being the best con audiences I've ever had.

Wow, WriterCon is socially pretty functional! I'm actually not great at the mingling and meeting new people thing, so I was thrilled that so many other people were and made the initial approach. I wave at lots of you, including shiverelectric, scarlettgirl and folks I met at the DW/TW wake and at lunch who's LJ userid's have not caught up to me yet (find me, find me, find me!)

People I already knew! I wave at rusty_halo and miep and I suppose should give a shoutout to kalichan here as well -- because OMG, it was her first con.

folks promoting their fandoms. WriterCon's origins are in Buffy fandom. I've seen one episode of the show ever, but Patty's into it, so hey, people were still enthused enough to have me walk out of the con saying, finally, maybe I should check Buffy out!

It also got me reenergized about Harry Potter.

It also made me less angry about a lot of the wangst in Doctor Who and Torchwood fandom. We had reasoned discussions about everything from CoE to the new Doctor to our interactions with various pro's connected to the Whoniverse, all without being assholes. Nice!

No shame about transformative works and a serious interest in craft. No sense that fanfiction is just practice, but a recognition that its parameters make it a unique art in and of itself. And you all laughed at my "is that like cancer?" joke anyway.

Creativity in action. invisible_lift, kalichan, miep and I wrote post-it note fic, which requires a lot of scanning in, but will be posted soon. I also understand that I missed a great concert from xionin and am really sad to have missed the podfic session general_jinjur did -- did any podfics come out of the weekend?

An amazing ability to come up with plan B. When shit went wrong, people handled it!

Yay for being in a sex-positive environment where sex was not also a currency or the only way to get attention. Both gen and sex-related panels were well-attended, kinks were discussed relatively openly (I think think we could have used a panel on writing kink though), issues related to writing sex (such as non-con, dub-con, rape content, character age issues) got good discussion and people dresses in a wide variety of ways -- and commanded equal respect from others -- throughout the con.

A remarkably low amount of women policing other women for "appropriate feminine behavior" -- I went to an all-girls school growing up and am very sensitive to the subtle ways in which women, raised to believe they are in competition for scarce resources (i.e., men, affection, status, beauty, etc.) that aren't actually scarce do shitty things to each other. We're apparently quite enlightened at WriterCon and don't. That was AWESOME.

Also, when people were given a little nudge about how men were being marginalized at the con, people made a point of checking themselves and things got better. Doctor Who and Torchwood fandom, at least my corner of it is very mixed gender and very queer and very racially and ethnically diverse. Other fandoms and fandoms as a whole aren't necessarily. But it was nice to see people behaving in a way, or working to behave in a way that made a diverse fandom future seem possible. It was important to people at WriterCon not to recreate what's broken about other subcultures, and that was great to see.

In the *fail department, I learned a valuable lesson myself. Because of what I do for a living and where I live and because of the professions and locations of most of the people I'm close to, I'm used to living in a very out world where queer people are identifiable by sight and dialogue. WriterCon felt both very straight and hostile to me at first, because of my own biases and it turned out the con was more queer and queer-friendly than I realized, even with the incidents of *fail I previously documented.

There will be one more post on WriterCon, this one talking about what I think could be improved about the Con from an orga perspective. But I like this con, I want to go back, I want more.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

...I should go to the next one. Sounds v.g.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I really should go to one of these one year. They sound wonderful.

(Other cons on this list - Escapade and Wiscon.)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love Escapade.

[oncomingscone.livejournal.com]

Do check Buffy out. I'm taking my DP friend through it now (we're on season 4) and he's loving it. In my opinion it's some of the best TV ever. I'm a massive fan of HP, Doctor Who, Torchwood, and always enjoyed Star Trek (TNG and TOS). But Buffy is just extraordinary and judging by your attraction to certain shows I'll be very surprised if it doesn't delight you.

Take care x

[wackinessensues.livejournal.com]

I am glad you enjoyed the con despite moments of fail. I've been to all three, and have seen it evolve (and at times devolve) and as a whole, I think we've done a good job of meeting the needs of attendees. I say this from an unofficial capacity, as I've paneled on all three and been involved in some aspects of planning but not on the concom.

Also? My room is always sex positive and queer friendly. :)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I thought the fight scene panel was great and incredibly informative, definitely one of the best I attended (and the only one I've managed to do a write up for so far) despite the fact I don't write fight scenes often.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty awesome, actually. I wish I could have gone.

A remarkably low amount of women policing other women for "appropriate feminine behavior" -- I went to an all-girls school growing up and am very sensitive to the subtle ways in which women, raised to believe they are in competition for scarce resources (i.e., men, affection, status, beauty, etc.) that aren't actually scarce do shitty things to each other. We're apparently quite enlightened at WriterCon and don't. That was AWESOME.

My curiosity is piqued! I've always been in mixed or mostly-male-except-for-a-few-women environments (the military, software industry) so I'm not sure what this entails.

[rm.livejournal.com]

People having their opinions shut-down for not being "nice," people being disregarded and being told they are being disregarded for not being a "real woman" (clothing and size issues), women who don't conform being described as whores, whispering that's meant to be overheard so that apologies are later "I didn't mean for you to hear that" (which is a lie) instead of "sorry I was an asshole," etc.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, yuck.

Obviously, having been in the military and software, nobody cares what you wear since you're all wearing the same thing as the guys (and in software, we all dress like crap.)

I feel quite lucky to have missed this Gossip Girl cultural assery. I like to be traditionally feminine sometimes, but don't feel pressured to and don't feel judged if I'm wearing Doc Martens and a concert tee.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Jesus, what are we, in grade school? Ms. Pritchett's 1953 school for girls?

At least at Ms. Pritchett's we had those sexy pillow fights.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I, in fact, went to Miss Hewitt's Classes for Young Ladies, hence why I have very, very, very sharp antenna for this stuff which I've seen in workplaces, university environments and many on-line communities.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

I was forced to go to Charm school.

I can use a fish knife?

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

Seen all of that, which is one reason why my closest friends have typically been men.

That's becoming less true as I get older, but of course the women I'm friends with aren't like that.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

finally, maybe I should check Buffy out!

I'd recommend that you stop at the end of Season 5, but it's definitely worth watching.

WriterCon felt both very straight and hostile to me at first, because of my own biases and it turned out the con was more queer and queer-friendly than I realized

I suspect that much of this was cultural - the upper midwest can seem very cold and even hostile and impressively normative to outsiders (at least it certainly seemed that way when I went to grad school in Madison WI), but it really isn't.

[lefaym.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that there was a lot of good stuff going on there too. I really hope I can attend one of these one day, although who knows if it will ever be possible.

Also, on an unrelated note, more flowers at the tourist office.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

I haven't found a write up of your fight talk yet, but I am very interested to know what you said (you're the only person I've met online who apparently shares my weird interest in historically accurate European fighting styles). Any chance of you posting your notes?

[jerusha]

I just wanted to comment to let you know how much I loved your workshop/panel on writing fight scenes. I think it was my favorite, and probably the most helpful from a writing standpoint.

So, yeah. You're awesome.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! It was really fun to do, and I'm thrilled it was useful as well as amusing.

[isil-helyanwe.livejournal.com]

I went to an all-girls school growing up and am very sensitive to the subtle ways in which women, raised to believe they are in competition for scarce resources (i.e., men, affection, status, beauty, etc.) that aren't actually scarce do shitty things to each other.

Ahh the wonders of a single-sex education. It always felt to me (back in the all-girls' years) that because we knew so many fewer boys than girls that every other girl at the school is going to be competing with you for their attention.

Anyhoo, glad you had fun. :)

[rm.livejournal.com]

That's a really good analysis that hadn't occurred to me. Being awkward and over-protected by my family, I never really dealt with boys at all, because our brother school was about half a mile away. I just saw them in drama rehearsal, but I was so Not in the Running, I grokked the behavior and the conceptual intent, but not the practical one.

[mintwitch.livejournal.com]

The vending room!

Yay! I have a few minor quibbles, because we had limited function room space, mostly due to budget issues, but overall I think the vending room set-up worked well. Please let me know if I could have done anything better (other than making clear at the outset that I could provide change at need. Doh!), or if you have other suggestions.

I'm actually not great at the mingling and meeting new people thing

Yeah, me neither. Ironic, considering my role on-site... I try hard, but mostly fail, I think. Ah, well.

WriterCon felt both very straight and hostile to me at first, because of my own biases and it turned out the con was more queer and queer-friendly than I realized

I respect you for recognizing this and saying it. As the only queer/PoC on the concomm & board (yet also one of the founders, so not a token other, dammit! though it could appear so, and I can "pass" in several ways that are sometimes uncomfortable /segue), it's really important to me that Writercon is a safe & genuinely (as opposed to superficially) diverse space, and everyone on the concomm & board (strongly) feels the same.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

You did such a wonderful job with the Magic Box. I was amazed at how carefully planned it was.

Also, I don't want to out anyone who's not comfortable being out, but now that I'm thinking about it, I can come up with at least three other people on concom who'd probably label themselves as some version of queer. So... you're not totally alone?

[mintwitch.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

And, huh, that's interesting and unexpected, although now we could get into "some version of queer" which is problematic, too. ;-) This entire extended conversation has been extremely interesting/enlightening/edifying/et cetera. I think fandom is getting better with practice

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Well, people who are not straight, but I'm not sure whether they prefer the term "queer" to describe themselves or not, so I didn't want to blanketly apply it.

I hope we're getting better. It would suck to have the same conversations forever without progress.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

*waves*

Friending you as I really enjoyed your insights at the con and love of Torchwood. :) Sadly, I don't believe we got to chat. Con just goes too fast.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And I so hear that, I keep finding out that there were people at the con I totally would have loved to chat to, and didn't even realize were attending!