[Radthorne]

Just finished with Norwescon! In addition to the aforementioned panels I had three writer's critiques assisting new writers with their manuscripts; the autograph session; and of course works up in the artshow and books in the dealer room. It was a very good con, where I got to meet up with a lot of old friends and make some new ones. The panels were, by and large, well attended and lively (although it is scary when you see people furiously scribbling down notes, recording what you're saying as if it is really something significant...) I was also very pleased that four of my artworks sold.

[Hereford Eye]

Details, man, details!
What significant ideas came to you during the panel discussions? Was there only one significant idea from one panel session or were there significant ideas from each session?
Which art sold?
How many lines have you completed TODAY on your new novel?

[alison]

Details would be fun. Congrats too on your burgeoning career as visual artist...

Hope you're writing more lines than I am today, Kevin. OK, enough procrastination...

[Dazzlinkat]

LOL sounds like a writing race ... whose going to win? the tortoise or the snail? You both have writer's block??

[Radthorne]

Details, man, details!
What significant ideas came to you during the panel discussions? Was there only one significant idea from one panel session or were there significant ideas from each session?
Which art sold?
How many lines have you completed TODAY on your new novel?

What a taskmaster!

I shall address your questions in reverse order. Today's writing output was less than normal because I was working on revisions to the outline, based on things that came to mind during the weekend of the conference (nothing like critiquing other people's stuff to get you started thinking about things you've missed in your own). I realized that there was an important point made in my earlier books in the series that I had not addressed in the current one, and which can be used to great effect in helping my main character deal with his central dilemma. So I was making the appropriate adjustments in the outline to incorporate that.

On a typical day, however, between both my morning-before-I-go-to-work and sitting-in-the-lunchroom-with-laptop writing sessions, I will produce about one scene, of roughly 1200 or so words.

Here are thumbnails for three of the artworks that sold, all of which have appeared previously in one of my art threads and on my website. Each picture is a link to the full page version of the image on my website, if you want a closer look.


http://www.kevinradthorne.com/Chamber of Light Thumb.jpg (http://www.kevinradthorne.com/Art General 89 Chamber of Light.html)

http://www.kevinradthorne.com/Rose Red Thumb.jpg (http://www.kevinradthorne.com/Art General 84 Rose Red.html)

http://www.kevinradthorne.com/Challenge Thumb.jpg (http://www.kevinradthorne.com/Art General 97 Challenge.html)

The last two were purchased by (or on behalf of) a very special fan I met at the con, who also purchased one of my pieces at Norwescon last year. Her enthusiam was very gratifying, and certainly encourages me to create more! :)

The fourth image has not appeared in my forum or on my website, because it actually is a bit too provactive for general consumption. The focal character is primarily nude save for an elaborate full-length tattoo consisting of a tree, flowers, and other such natural things. I dubbed the image Forest Queen, and she blends in nicely with the surrounding trees. However, as I do have a certain sense of propriety, I chose not to post it on the web. (I should add that there were far more revealing and erotic things in the art show at the con, not the least of which were works by Luis Royo, the artist guest of honor, who makes some incredible imagery, and pretty much all of it being of the nude pinup variety.)

And finally, things significantly said? Well, nothing really by me, certainly. In general, the panels that I sign up for are writing panels where I and my fellow panelists describe, and on occasion debate, various points about craft that (we hope) may assist our fellow writers who are striving to complete their first professional works. As such, I have something to say (whether useful or not) on pretty much all of the topics that were listed in the preceding list of panels. If you have one in particular you'd like me to pontificate on, just let me know. I think I remember most of what I said... :rolleyes:

[Radthorne]

Congrats too on your burgeoning career as visual artist...

Hope you're writing more lines than I am today, Kevin. OK, enough procrastination...

Thank you! :)

(Now, no more reading SFFWorld threads - back to work! Write! Write!) :D

[KatG]

I would be interested to hear about the Neverending Series and Character panels, plus send me a copy of The Forest Queen if you would.

[Radthorne]

I would be interested to hear about the Neverending Series and Character panels, plus send me a copy of The Forest Queen if you would.

In the Neverending Series panel, the main subject of discussion was the distinction between a neverending series and a neverending story. An example of the latter would of course be Jordan's Wheel of Time. The success of those books notwithstanding, the general consensus in the room was that readers were somewhat tired of that approach, and expected a fuller resolution, and story-within-itself, for each book. In a series approach, there will generally be an overall story arc tying individual books together, but each volume has its own arc of beginning-middle-end, with a satisfying resolution, and with character change, just like a stand alone novel. This can be accomplished in 'sets' of trilogies (CJ Cherryh was mentioned, although ones that come to mind for me are Katherine Kurtz' Deryni series), or as individual books sharing a common world that you've created (for example, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series). In both cases, characters can be shared among the books to greater or lesser degrees, the constant being the environment and the larger story arc (Darkover didn't have a particular overall arc, but that was because Bradley was more "re-visiting" that world than building it with a larger story in mind). A visual example was given with Babylon 5, wherein we had a weekly episode but also a four year (extended to five year) storyline that was being followed as well.

The other point that we made was that new writers starting out would be advised not to approach an editor with, "I have this great idea for a ten book series." Unless you have some track record, your material would have to be extraordinary for a publisher to commit to anything like that. When talking mutli-book stories, more often they are going to commit for from one to three book deals, the gestation of the second and third then hinging in part on the success of the first book. As well, it takes some measure of experience to be able to maintain pacing and interest over a long series, and a new writer would be advised to hone those skills with shorter story arcs first.

There were several character based panels, but I'll assume you might be asking about the one called Characters are People Too. This one was interesting in that our moderator had prepared a list of questions for us in advance, so I could jot down some notes. Her questions were fairly specific, asking us to cite examples of various techniques we used with our characters to highlight individual traits. For example, drawing on personal emotional experiences to graft realistic reactions onto your characters. This is not to say to make your characters like yourself or someone you know, but to utilize the emotional reactions you've observed in others so that your own characters can respond in similar and believable ways.

Several of the other panelists advocated the biography approach, of writing out a complete history of your characters' lives, what they like and don't like, even going so far as to "interview" them with a series of questions. This is a popular approach to building well-rounded characters. I discussed an alternative approach, which is to take a more holistic view of your characters in relationship to the story. The danger (both in extremely detailed advance building of your characters' lives, and in elaborate world building down to the rates of currency exchange and the like) is that quite often once you start the actual writing the story may not go as originally planned. People may need to be a bit different than originally envisioned, or something in the world may need to function in a different way, for the story to work properly or to read well. There then can be a hesitancy to "mess with" all that elaborate and carefully crafted structure. Yet a writer should always remember that characters and settings are just tools in the tool box, as much as the words you use to write with. You want to avoid boxing yourself into a corner or be afraid that something's going to unravel if you deviate from the plan (this coming from someone who makes a fairly structured outline for his fairly large novels).

One of the other panelists had a good example: she got halfway through her horror novel and faced a situation where her character had to ascend a staircase to where something bad awaited. For whatever reason, though, she realized that the way she had consructed him, at that point he simply would just have not gone up the stairs. And now she was stuck and couldn't go forward. In the end she had to go back and re-write him in ways that would allow him to go up the stairs. What I always tell people in these panels is that when you face such an issue, you have to make a decision: is the way you've envisioned the character more important than the story point, or is this story point vital to the plot? One or the other has to be adjusted, and to be done correctly you'll have to go back to earlier points of the manuscript and make adjustments to make everything come back together properly once you reach the current sticking point, so as to make it un-stick.

That's not everything we talked about, by any means, but it takes a lot longer to type this stuff out than to say it. :D

Forest Queen image is being emailed to you, too.

[Radthorne]

By way of news... I've had three professional art commissions in the last couple of weeks, all from my current book publisher, Windstorm Creative.

The first is to provide the character illustrations for a collectable card game (they have, among their several divisions, one that produces games). I'm doing thirty cards for that project.

I've also accepted two book cover assignments, both scf-fi related; one is a YA book, the other adult.

All of that while still trying to plug away on book three... busy, busy, busy! :)

[Dazzlinkat]

Congrats! Sounds like you have plenty to keep you busy! Hope everything isn't due at the same time, though :eek: