Writing panel ideas

[annathepiper]

So I've been asked by awritersweekend for panel ideas for next year's conference (this year's being nailed down already and taking place at the very end of this month). I've already thought of a couple, both of which come out of my online gaming/roleplay experience:

• Writing POV characters that aren't your gender. I used to get semi-regularly boggled at for playing male characters on various games, and more than once I've been boggled at by other writers who have difficulty getting into the mindset of writing a character that isn't their own gender.
  
  
• Jumping from online gaming to writing and what skills are transferrable. I've identified at least four writing-related skills I've practiced during my RP years: character development (this certainly being the biggest, for the games where I've had to apply for characters with special backgrounds and/or abilities), plot development, how to effectively describe an action, and how to collaborate with others on a group work.

Anybody up for adding to this list? If you were going to attend a writing conference, what unusual panel topic would you like to see?

(x-posted between my journal and scuzzboppers)

Comments

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I would like to see (okay, so I'd like to be a panelist on) a panel on writing planets that make sense; worldbuilding scientifically, if you will.

I hate "uni-ecosystem" worlds. They don't make sense. Unless (and here's the caveat) no life has been able to evolve on it at all.

[annathepiper]

There's been less of an emphasis on this at Writer's Weekend since it's more of a general writing conference than focusing on one specific genre... but I've seen panels like this, I think, on the writing track at Norwescon.

SF/F does have a bit of a presence at Writer's Weekend, but it tends to slant towards romance, suspense, and mystery. This is definitely worth thinking about, though, if appropriate panelists could be found.

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of the things I find that being a gamer has given me is the ability to jigsaw together multiple backgrounds/events into a linked plot... the 'oh wait, what if X's unknown /mother/ is the person behind Y's disappearance...' thing :)

Dunno if I could explain /how/ I do it, though :)

[annathepiper]

I kind of consider that part of what comes out in "plot development" and "collaborating with others in a group work", yeah. :) Pulling others into a tinyplot as you build it on a MUSH would definitely have some skills in it that would be useful if you were going to go and try to work with another writer to write something.

[suzene.livejournal.com]

Heh. I have almost the opposite problem; I can rarely write female characters (or at least not human ones) in what I feel is a convincing style.

I'd like to see something on the balance between making alien characters something more than a human in a different skin, but at the same time, managing to keep some point of empathy.

[annathepiper]

Writer's Weekend unfortunately has had less of an SF/F emphasis than I'd like--it tends to slant towards romance, suspense, and mystery. I'm not the only SF/F type that shows up by any means, but there's a dearth of pertinent panel topics.

I like your idea, though. ^_^ I think I've seen panels with that concept at Norwescon before!

[wildshadowstar.livejournal.com]

Before I answer, I'd like to know what's been discussed recently so as to not repeat something.

[annathepiper]

If you look here, you can see the stuff that's on the schedule for this year.

I never got around to posting about the 2006 Writer's Weekend, but if you check these earlier posts of mine and skim down a bit, you can get to my 2004 and 2005 posts that talk about the panels I attended in those years.