Conflux 13: Day 2
It’s 7:05pm as I begin writing, bleary-eyed and rocking a banquet-sized hunger (in related news, the official Conflux 13 banquet begins in twenty-five minutes).
First things first: after a panicked search and paying a suitable bribe to Miss Five, I have the GOOD tiara, and have been wearing it all day.
I’m also wearing an epic purple tutu, and wings. It’s possible glitter and craft glue are involved.
(There are brass lamps and circular patterns in the foyer/bar/restaurant. It is shiny, and the perfect accidentally-steampunky venue for my launch of “Antipodean Queen 2: Silver and Stone” tomorrow at 2pm in the JFK room.)
Note to self: Take pictures. Promise to show them to people who read tomorrow’s blog.
I extremely enjoyed being on the “Beyond the Hunger Games: Best young adult books in the last twelve months” panel. My personal top picks (based on personal taste + genius):
- “Borderline” and “Phantom Pains” (Books 1 and 2 of the Arcadia Project) by Mishell Baker.
- “Goldenhand” by Garth Nix (Book 5 of the Old Kingdom…er… trilogy).
- “Songlines” by Carolyn Denman (Book 1 of the Sentinels of Eden series).
- “Salvage” by Martin Rodereda.
- “Six of Crows” by Leigh Bardugo, which I am reading now (in preparation for the panel…oops).
I adored the panel on Steampunk Martial Arts by Laura E. Goodin, Madeleine D’Este (yes, her again), Aiki Flinthart, and Rik Lagarto. I could listen to any of those people on any topic, but that was just fantastic. I especially enjoyed Laura and Rik’s humour, and Aiki’s knowledge of unusual weapons (hampered only by my knowledge that everyone will know I’ve stolen the ideas from her), such as the flexible sword word as a belt.
I lied about being in the Dealer Room most of the day. There are so many Odyssey authors this year that I wandered off to other places so me and my tutu could stop sweeping over book displays and toppling posters.
Skirts. They’re dangerous.
Photos tomorrow.
Conflux 13: Day 1
Conflux is Canberra’s annual Speculative Fiction conference, run each year by members of the excellent and enormous writing group, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSFG). It runs over the October long weekend, which this year and last year has included September. Because life is confusing.
This year for the first time the venue is the Vibe Airport Hotel. It’s very pretty inside and out, and surprisingly easy to get to (whether you’re coming from the airport—it’s about a ten-minute walk) or from Canberra. The best parking option is $10/day at Brindabella Business Park (again, a ten minute walk away). I haven’t checked that for myself since I park in the little 2-hour carpark with my disability permit. There’s also parking underneath the hotel, but I think it’s $23/day or guests only. (Please confirm your plans with someone less vague.)
I really like Vibe’s layout. As soon as you walk in the door you’re in the bar (“Huzzah!” from the chorus), facing the Conflux rego desk, with the hotel reception to the left and all the conference rooms on the right. The restaurant is behind the bar, and the entire hotel foyer is filled with a delicious range and fluidity of chairs and couches and stools and tables.
One of the best things about Vibe is that the conference rooms in particular have excellent sound design (that sounds like a minor thing, but it’s not). The down side is that we don’t get free wifi. We do get free tea and coffee, and all the staff I’ve had contact with were very helpful. I’m pathetically jealous of the people that get to stay there (who I’m sure are pathetically jealous that I can go to my own family and bed to sleep).
Friday is a work day, but we still managed a highly respectable crowd, which bodes very well indeed for the rest of the conference.
This is probably about the point in proceedings that I should mention my flaws as a conference blogger: I almost never go to panels, unless I’m speaking. What I love is hanging out in the dealer room, emerging periodically to eat and drink and hang out some more in the food area, then going to hang out in the dealer room some more.
I could tell you that the panel I was on with Dion Perry, Madeleine D’Este, and Kathryn Gossow was pretty cool, but what would I know? (Also, if you like my books I can pretty much guarantee you’ll like Madeleine’s. Evangeline and the Alchemist is the first one, and I think it’s free all weekend. It’s Aussie steampunk set in Melbourne with a inventive but frequently idiotic heroine.)
So how’s the dealer room? It is nice. The tables include music (Meri Amber, who somewhat corners the market on nerdy singing); the launching-at-Conflux Never Never Book Box subscription series; a range of hats and other gear; and of course many many delicious books.
Speaking of which, guess what I beheld for the first time today??
That’s right. My second published novel. I approved the final edits oh…. about a week ago. So I was a teensy bit worried I’d have no books to sell at the launch on Sunday.
But it’s here, and it looks beautiful, and I think it probably even has my words inside.
(The severed hands belong to my children, who spent much of the day hiding under the Odyssey Books table.)
Is this a face that makes you want to buy books?
Tell me your answers below!
The countdown is on
The second book in the Antipodean Queen trilogy is at the printer and will be ready for the book launch this Sunday (almost definitely). You can pre-order the hard copies through the publisher here, and it’ll be on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, etc etc in a couple of weeks. You can use the ISBN to order it through your local bookshop in case it’s not classy enough to order the book itself.
The launch is at 2pm at Canberra’s Vibe Airport Hotel. It’s part of Conflux, Canberra’s annual speculative fiction conference, but the launch itself is free. So is hanging out in the Vibe bar and/or restaurant after the launch.
There’s no need to RSVP, but the facebook event page is here.
It’ll be short and sweet, but there will still be time for costume prizes (anything steampunk, historical, Aussie, crocodile-like, or fairyish will do).
Here’s the cover, at last!
And click here to watch the trailer. It’s a little inspiring, I think.
Novels Versus Interactive Novels
This is a post written for Games Versus Play.
I write both novels and interactive novels, and I’m fascinated by the style differences between the two.
(This is how fascinated I am.)
When I write novels, I often write in first person (“I don’t deliberately make things explode”), and sometimes third person (“She doesn’t deliberately make things explode”). It is extremely rare to find a published novel written in second person (“You don’t deliberately make things explode”). Most people find second person very jarring. The famous exception is “Choose Your Own Adventure” novels, and I’ve seen a couple of modern children’s books written in second person.
The great thing about first person is that it’s easy to use a quirky writing style, and to see inside the main character’s head. In my opinion, it’s particularly good for young adult or crossover writing, when internal thoughts are often an important part of the plot. On the down side, you can’t see the thought processes of other characters, or any information the main character doesn’t know (such as, there is a bushfire coming).
Second person is favoured by a lot of interactive fiction, because it emphasises the reader’s involvement in the story.
It’s also common to have a different style for the text of the choices themselves. For example, Choice of Games uses second person for the main text, and first person for the choices (which is reversed in the Tin Man Games “Choices That Matter” serial story app).
The overwhelming majority of novels use past tense (“Quit it!” said Bob), but quite a few interactive novels use present tense (“Quit it!” says Bob). When I’m writing a first draft, regardless of the form, I tend to switch back and forth between the two, which is always the most obvious thing I have to fix when I edit. It’s never okay to release a story like that.
This blog entry is in present tense. It feels more immediate to the reader—more like a face to face conversation. That’s useful for interactive fiction, which is a more conversational reading experience than novels. Quite a lot of writers fall into present tense in a first draft (whether they mean to or not) because they’re watching their own story as it happens in their head.
A story in its simplest form involves an interesting character with a serious problem who faces obstacles and then either succeeds or fails in solving their problem. The crucial structural elements are:
- How to make a character interesting. Flaws? Features? Quirks? Relate-ability? Pain (physical and/or emotional)? Unusual skills? Danger?
- What is the problem? It needs to be serious to the character, so it can be as simple as being thirsty or as complicated as saving the universe.
- What are the obstacles? They need to appear unsurmountable, and costly. The most difficult part is often having the character attempt to solve the problem in a way that should work (so the character doesn’t come across as an idiot) but instead backfires (raising the tension in the story). It’s a tricky balance.
- An ending must feel satisfying, even if the character fails or the problem has grown worse.
There are plenty of other elements to the story—worldbuilding, themes, scenery, subplots, etc etc—and of course other characters.
The greatest difference between a novel and an interactive novel is #1. The main character of a book is entirely under the writers’ control. They grow and change during the story. A crucial issue for any interactive fiction writer is how to make an interesting main character while also giving the reader control over the story. Often the solution is to make the main character a “Blank Slate”, an effect that works very much like a prototypical “Mary Sue”. That is, the reader can project their own personality onto the character.
Companies like Choice of Games work hard to allow the reader to fill in the blanks—choosing their own gender, sexuality, personality, and even the type of story. A single story with the same general ending can tell multiple stories eg a story ending with a prom can be a romance (the main character gets the girl/guy), horror (Carrie), action (Buffy), or tragedy (the main character doesn’t get the girl/guy) depending largely on the climactic scene. This means the writer needs to be able to think of their own main character and plot in several contradictory ways, and write their scenes accordingly.
A good interactive story writer also needs to think about the tangled fictional ethics of non-player characters. This is especially true in stories with a romance. Most interactive stories offer several romantic options, which immediately begs the question, “How are so many different people all attracted to one person? And is everybody bi?” NPCs really ARE just pieces on a board designed to make the player feel good, but good writing makes them feel like living, breathing individuals.
In the “Dream Daddy Dating Simulator” one of the potential romances is doomed no matter what the player does. This is frustrating to experience, but also makes the game more satisfying, because—as the creators point out—not all romances end well.
Some writers use statistics to block or allow romance, eg Kevin is only attracted to players who have shown high levels of empathy. Others have different sexuality for different NPCs, eg Kevin can only fall for male characters. That can be problematic, because far too much entertainment is pitched to a straight male setting. In my opinion, it’s better to have all bisexual NPCs than to give players less choices based on their gender.
The other tricky style element of interactive fiction is the dreaded “block of text”. In general, interactive fiction writers often aim for less than 300 words between choices. That means long passages of description or dialogue are a no-no. There are always exceptions to the rule, but in general readers want a LOT of choices, and will get bored with lengthy prose (no matter how beautiful or profound). IF can be beautiful and profound, but it needs to use less words to do so (or to use the same number of words, but break up paragraphs with choices).
The experience of reading an interactive novel is both more and less involving than reading a book. As an interactive fiction reader, you can have a huge amount of control over the story—who to love, who to kill, what to learn and how to use your skills—but you are also constantly breaking the fourth wall as you pause to consider your choices along the way. I tend to read non-interactive novels at night, because the decision-making process of reading IF is too stressful.
Whether you’re writing, reading, or playing… good luck!
Felicity Banks 