hils | The weekend that was

So, a couple of weeks ago I attended

writerconuk and in my easily distracted state I totally forgot to post about it

After Asylum 8 left me feeling a little flat the weekend before I wasn't sure how I was going to take to another weekend away. Really, the atmosphere couldn't have been more different and I really am dumb for worrying I might not enjoy myself.

The train journey down to Coventry was fine, albeit very hot. I spent most of it switching between reading fic on my Kindle and playing on Twitter. On the way down I learned that it was apparently Geek Pride day. Good thing I was prepared and already wearing my Superwholockpotter shirt

Arrived at the hotel and there was already a small gathering in the bar. I made haste and ordered a nice, cold beer before settling down to chat

kazzy_cee had a shiny iPad3 and let me play with it. I want one. I'd never use it so I probably won't ever buy one but it's a lot of fun. Not sure I can justify £400 on what I would essentially use as a toy though.

Not long after I arrived

kitty_poker1 joined us and we formed a srs bsns corner with

booster17 where we spent a good hour discussing religion and politics. Don't worry, there was no more of that for the rest of the weekend :D

The best thing about this event is that we have people from all fandoms, often from multiple fandoms, so regardless of what you're into there will always be at least one person there you can talk about it with. I mentioned that my current fave was the Avengers fandom and before the end of the night we were talking about the practicalities contraception for the Hulk (via

wildecate who wasn't even there. LOL).

And because

bogwitch is awesome I got an Avengers ruler in my goodie bag even though I'm pretty sure I listed SPN as my primary fandom when I registered. She's so good to me

Before retiring for the night we had a quiz and by some miracle our team (which I named Team Squee) won. So we got a bottle of wine \o/

We started the next morning with a nice breakfast and then jumped straight into our first panel which was by

ningloreth's panel on making banners for fic. Now, I am not artistic in any way but I find the process really interesting. I've watched

hsapiens make graphics before and it's fascinating. So this talk, even as a non-artist, was great.

During our coffee break we mourned the loss of the comfy sofas that used to be in the breakout room but we made do :D

After that

curiouswombat did a fascinating talk on writing sex scenes. Really interesting to get into the differences between erotica and porn (even if it did make me think of Inferno for those of you who have seen Coupling). That's the great thing about this event. Not only does being around writerly types inspire me but I always learn things over the weekend too. I hate to say it but often I don't put a lot of thought into what I'm writing and just put down what comes naturally. I'm sure if I paid attention to the things I learned here it would make me a better writer.

Tee hee! DNW!

We paused for lunch and I was still full from breakfast so I just loitered in the breakout room with

kitty_poker1 and worked on my Avengers fic.

After lunch

speakr2customrs did a great talk about writing character death. Now, I generally avoid reading any fic that involves character death beyond the inevitable death of the villain or the odd mook. But even these deaths were covered in the talk so it was really interesting. And, sad to say, I do get the urge to write character death occasionally just to see if I can. Although generally I have to give it a post-death happy ending because I'm me.

Finally

gillo did a great talk on plagiarism. This is a sensitive subject for me because not only have I had fics plagiarised in the past but I have also been accused of plagiarism (which is still one of the worst things that's ever happened to me). All I will do is say if you're not a member of

stop_plagiarism then check it out. They were really great at looking after me when my fics were stolen and they did a proper investigation and cleared my name after I was accused as well.

We ended the day with a workshop. We were split into three groups and we each had to write either a love scene, a death scene or the introduction. And it had to be badfic. We were also given props with which we had to act out our scene. We were given death and we ended up writing Buffy killing Sherlock (sob). Needless to say because it was badfic we were all giggling a lot. And we also drank the Team Squee wine \o/

After the workshop we paused for cocktails. I order a Blue Arrow just because the name reminded me of Clint a bit ;)

I have no idea what was in it but it packed a wallop!

Then it was time for dinner. I have to say the hotel really did look after us this weekend. They don't normally serve cocktails but they put together a menu just for us, and the meal they had for us was YUMMY.

kazzy_cee had prepared a little quiz where you had to identify actors by their eyes. I failed on most of them, even this one :-s

After dinner most of the group broke off to watch Eurovision but because I was feeling inspired I stayed upstairs and worked on my Avengers fic some more.

bogwitch and

quinara joined me and it was nice. However, the cocktail and wine made me sleepy so I headed off to bed at around midnight.

The next morning we had our AGM and it was agreed we'd have another event next year (back to the usual time of August) with the same committee. I have already volunteered to host a panel as I missed doing it this year.

We then performed the fic we'd written in the workshop and then it was time to disperse. Sadface.

I really did have a great time. Everyone was lovely, I laughed a lot, learned things and got writing done. Really, I think I'd be happy to skip out on actor cons in the future and just do this.

Well, until I find a new TV fandom that does cons anyway :D

On the way home the train company had put me in one of the disabled seats for some reason so I had loads of legroom

Again I spent the journey home reading and playing on Twitter and also munching on sweets from my goodie bag. Did you know Starburst come with weird instructions on the wrappers now?

And to end the weekend I left a little present on the train

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

bogwitch.livejournal.com

I am well practised in following your fandom whims. :D

I love the gesture with the sweets on the trains, although if I found them I'm not sure I'd trust them enough to eat them!