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Videos Of Herself & Janeness; ...& me also, getting Lit
Topic Started: Feb 12 2008, 06:45 PM (614 Views)
Felicitous Sk8er
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SpoCon hosted a very small (the roads were terrible!), very nice, informal gathering in mid-January, 2008. Just posted: SpoCon Winter Literary Event: videos

Each video is ~1:30-2:30. To see the clips, a fast connection is nearly mandatory.

Numbered top-to-bottom:
#1 does not show Herself at all.
#2 is mostly Janeness speaking, with Herself's :cherryh: right hand punctutating interjected comments. The best footage is in this clip. It is also the longest.
#3 is mostly another author, but Herself makes one comment. Footage of Herself is mostly at a distance.


I'm in #1 & #2, getting "Lit". :innocent

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Zen
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ActiveX?

Javascript?!!!

MIME components to be mucked about with!!!!

One is nervous about such changes.

Could we have this in some other format?
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Felicitous Sk8er
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Zen, I don't know if this is any better, but all 3 are available via YouTube ---> SpoCon
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starexplorer
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But #1 has M J Engh, author of the SF political classic, Arslan. Quite a good book.

I enjoyed the shots of Sk8er, busily scrawling notes, perhaps to share with this rapt audience!
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Felicitous Sk8er
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Star-ji, you win the prize! :lol:

That was me. Very serious & scholarly. :t
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Surtac
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Some good stuff here - thanks Sk8er! :cheers

:invert
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Tevia

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What an incredible resource Spokane has in its neighborhood. I am simply envious of those who live so close they are able to go to a discussion/lecture given by authors of such skill. Wow.
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Felicitous Sk8er
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Because of these videos, I just reviewed my con notebook & was surprised to see that I had written down far more than I recalled.

A few pearls. Many are from :cherryh: :

PLOT & WORLD BUILDING panel (video #2):

Write down the question: "What is this book about?", then try to herd the book towards this question...but *analyzing* destroys the magic.

Asimov's The Immortal Bard is one of Jane's favorites.

"Theme" & "plot" are useful for analyzing, but not in creation.

"Plot" to :cherryh: is "lines of dynamic tension between the characters."

:cherryh: gave the audience an exercise: "Close your eyes & think of a sandy beach." We did. Then Herself made the point that every one of us had a different idea of what a "sandy beach" looked like...and who was there, etc. "This is where story starts", Herself then elaborated, directing us to "see" who was at "the beach". "Have the person(s) 'fess up to you."

"All characters lie", Herself continued. "This is where ideas come from...(the characters come walking) down the beach."

Watching TV every night doesn't let you "go to the beach": be in touch with your hindbrain.


Discussion then veered onto research. When :cherryh: wrote Mask, she needed a map of Venice with the names of all the canals...some of which are only 100 feet long. She keyed into a search engine "map of Venice" and got the info...an example of how the Internet has made her research easier.

:cherryh: commenting on conventional wisdom: "Write what you know?!? The fun is writing about what you don't know!"

:cherryh: discussing "how to be a good reader": write questions in the margin. How a story grows: when you realize there is a question to be answered. Let the hindbrain connect the loose threads.

It was at this panel that Herself publically announced Foreigner #10 was titled Conspirator.
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Felicitous Sk8er
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WRITER'S WORKSHOP PREPARATION panel:

:cherryh: : line-editing "can be life-changing": you may learn though it what you own voice is. Herself then gave an example of line-editing, demonstrating how construction changed the entire meaning and emphasis of a sentence, even though the words were identical.

:cherryh: : "Rhythm matters."

:cherryh: : Try to get rid of "was" & "what" as much as possible.
:cherryh: : Don't mess up "may" & "might": sequence of tenses.

Webster's Dictionary has 3 pages of English grammer rules, in the Roman-numeraled preface.

Cyteen 1 had so many "STETS" (copy-editingese for "let it stand"; :cherryh: over-riding the copyeditor with STETS in the galleys) -- that :cherryh: finally sent a disk in to the publisher. As many as 25 copy edits would be on 1 page alone that Herself needed to over-ride.

:cherryh: responded to "How do I write dialogue?" by explaining "You be the character." Ability to role-play is integral to good authors. You must be ready to compromise your own values in order to write the story (the various viewpoints; get into character).

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Jeimani
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One is jealous, nand' Sk8er, but one offers sincere thanks for being our liaison and providing us notes of the presentations. It's enough to make one so inspired as to begin typing immediately!

<<<Scurries off to locate pen and paper for initial novel outline.>>>
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Felicitous Sk8er
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Our most recent Associate, Nand' Tralmek, PMd me today:

Quote:
 
I noticed a lot of linkage into my site from here for the SpoCon videos of C.J. Cherryh. I just wanted to thank you all for your interest and to let you know that I am currently working on the logistics of getting a full-length version of the writers workshop video up in the next couple of weeks.



:bunny7: :fluffy: :bunny7:
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