Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: bouncy
  • Music: Ludo, "The Broken Bride."

Inside the Storyteller's Studio: Meet Our Hat.

catvalente and I will be appearing "in conversation" at the upcoming WorldCon. While we have a few topics of our own to cover, we thought it might be nice to see what other people want us to talk about. We're going to try to get this videotaped, thus giving y'all a much greater stake in the discussion than you might otherwise have. So...

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed by me and Cat, probably while under the influence of a lot of sugar? Drop it here! We'll copy out our favorites and put them into a hat (or hat-shaped object), to be drawn during our conversation whenever we need a subject change.

It'll be fun!
Tags: cat valente, con prep, requesting things, silliness
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  • 25 comments

bigherman

August 23 2010, 18:19:42 UTC 6 years ago

Mary Sue's. avoiding them.

vixyish

August 23 2010, 18:41:00 UTC 6 years ago

Subset: if they're ever valid/well done, and if so, what makes them so.

bardling

August 24 2010, 09:31:43 UTC 6 years ago

Good suggestion & subset! :)

spectralbovine

August 23 2010, 18:26:59 UTC 6 years ago

Choosing the proper prose style to suit the narrative.*



*Assuming that you, as an author, have the ability to write in more than one prose style.**

**Inspired partly by reading "Everglades" and noticing that, despite being set in the Feed universe, it doesn't actually read like Feed.***

***The easy answer is different narrators have different voices, but expand this question to third-person (or choosing a person in general) and you have a conversation.

Trite, but perhaps topical . . .

ladyqkat

August 23 2010, 18:37:53 UTC 6 years ago

What will our kitties think about the zombi-acoplyse?

amazon_syren

August 23 2010, 18:39:35 UTC 6 years ago

1) How to find the character to need to tell That Particular Story (Or: How to find the voices that will bring your plot bunnies to life, as the case may be).

2) Re-Enchanting the world: why, how, and anything else you'd care to yack about. Ideally touching on: 'Saying "Yes" to Faerie', 'Urban Fantasy', 'fairy tales, folklore, and mythology in/for the post-modern age', and similar themes.

3) What kinds of stories are you each drawn to telling? What themes tend to run through your work, regardless of which characters are talking or what audience they're aimed at?

4) Art begets art: On being multidisciplinary artists, art and craft, techne, and similar. :-)

bardling

August 24 2010, 09:32:47 UTC 6 years ago

Mmmm, I'd love to hear the discussion on those, too...

vixyish

August 23 2010, 18:41:59 UTC 6 years ago

Characters surprising you. Characters taking over and going entirely other directions than you intended. Plot twists in your own books that you didn't see coming.

angel_vixen

August 24 2010, 03:34:55 UTC 6 years ago Edited:  August 24 2010, 03:35:43 UTC

Agreed!

ETA: Also, myths/folktales you wish got more screen-time in modern-day retellings, and myths/folktales you wish could sit on the sidelines for a little bit so others could have a turn.

AngelVixen :-)

bardling

August 24 2010, 09:33:30 UTC 6 years ago

...or "things" taking over in that manner like locations, items...

muddlewait

August 23 2010, 18:47:46 UTC 6 years ago

How, specifically, do your first readers help each of you? As a jumping-off point, you could list your first readers (using pseudonyms if identities need to stay secret) and at least one distinct benefit you get from each of them.

bardling

August 24 2010, 09:34:19 UTC 6 years ago

Oh! Very interesting suggestion.

I'm starting to desperately want to be present for this thing...

catvalente

August 24 2010, 18:28:51 UTC 6 years ago

Sigh. I wish I had some other than my husband. :(

muddlewait

August 25 2010, 04:03:39 UTC 6 years ago

Nothing wrong with having just one. I'd be interested in hearing what kinds of help he's able to give your writing.

kyburg

August 23 2010, 18:50:11 UTC 6 years ago

You're both California girls. I'm sure that will come up sometime. ^^ Oh, say - like, living on the Pacific Rim and how that tends to influence things, even if only by inducing one to back away slowly?

"These are a few of my favorite things...." Go there. Set up shop.

"It may surprise you, but I'm not awesome at everything." What you know you don't and may never do well - in my case, don't ask me to shoot pool or arrange flowers. Unless you want to rob me blind hustling me on a trick shot - or want an arrangement that looks like bruised dandelion greens thrust into a Mason jar. Every time. No matter what I start with. It's amusing to me at this point in my life - reliable as clockwork, these two things NEVER work for me.

"The LAST story idea you'd expect out of me - that I hope I get to do someday."

rarelylynne

August 23 2010, 19:09:20 UTC 6 years ago

Writing non-fiction as opposed to fiction; being fannish as a professional who has fans.

rarelylynne

August 24 2010, 18:12:10 UTC 6 years ago

Also, one of the best discussions I had on a panel was answering the question "What makes art valuable?"

*hands the ball to you* Have fun.

ladymondegreen

August 23 2010, 19:20:46 UTC 6 years ago

First person vs. third person, when and why.

hvideo

August 23 2010, 21:37:48 UTC 6 years ago

Tricks of the english language, or, "Hey Seanan, how did you know =I'd= probably be under the influence of a lot of sugar while watching your panel?"

(grinning, ducking and running)

More tricks of English

hvideo

August 23 2010, 22:03:51 UTC 6 years ago

Having gone on to read your other post about your Worldcon schedule, I noted

"Saturday, 4:00 PM: Signing. I will sign stuff. Super-exciting."

and my first thought was "Sounds great - have you been taking lessons in ASL from Judi Miller?"


vincentursus

August 23 2010, 22:26:25 UTC 6 years ago

Justifying the presence of supernatural elements in a world that seems like our's on the surface.

bardling

August 24 2010, 09:36:23 UTC 6 years ago Edited:  August 24 2010, 09:37:03 UTC

Knowing what you write - how to tell how much detail you need to research to be able to write something, how to tell when "too little" becomes enough.

(Grr, *this* userpic, please, LJ. Ta.)

nolly

August 24 2010, 21:23:33 UTC 6 years ago

I wish I were going to be there to hear it.

How about gender essentialism -- are women inherently different from men, other than anatomically, or are any observed differences wholly societal in origin? For a more practical application, is "just men in skirts" a valid dismissal of an author's female characters, and what does that mean about the women who identify with them?

aliciaaudrey

August 25 2010, 14:03:51 UTC 6 years ago

I hope to make it to the conversation between you and Cat in New York later in the fall, so this is just a request to perhaps do a similar "call for questions" before that appearance.

seanan_mcguire

September 14 2010, 17:07:39 UTC 6 years ago

We may do that, and we may just do what we wound up doing at WorldCon, and asking the audience for questions.