Wiscon 33 - Let's Build a World

[julieandrews]

The first panel notes I have with me here are for the "Let's Build a World" panel. I attended this last year, and I have to say I enjoyed last year's more. This year, they followed more closely to the panel description. That is, the panel did most of the brainstorming and worldbuilding. Whereas last year, they were more co-participants with the audience, with only the moderator doing any heavy lifting. (And a lot of scribbling.)

This year, the moderator asked the audience for 3 ideas for each of the categories listed in the program booklet: tech level, economic system, climate, and races. He would've even bypassed the 'etc' if I hadn't spoken up as an audience member. So I believe we also ended up with 3 etceteras.

This, I feel, was too limiting. The first three ideas, you're only just getting warmed up. Last year, each category got its own giant paper sheet. This year, everything fit on one. My suggestion for next year is to let the audience (and panelists, if any) to keep suggesting things until they slow to a trickle or it's gone on for close to 10 minutes. And you can see how more categories are definitely needed. How can you have race, but not have gender at Wiscon?

I just realized all of my notes for this panel were actually ideas of mine for a world or a story idea. Only tangentially related to the panel, as in something in the panel made me come up with the idea and feel the need to write it down.

The actual world the panel came up with is, I think, less important than the process itself. When there's enough audience participation, it's a whole lot of fun. And it's definitely an instructional experience for a writer or reader. Ie, here's all these crazy, seemingly unrelated ideas, but let's collectively get them to make sense together and be incredibly interesting at the end of it.

Both incarnations of this panel created a world that I don't think I could write about or in. Mainly because I don't know that I could write such alien creatures, or would want to. I guess I have a bias towards human or humanoid species. Especially when it comes to novel-length, as the ideas of both years' panels really seemed to be heading for.

So my suggestion for next year: More brainstorming, more audience participation, perhaps even do away with a panel altogether. Or give the panelists a different sort of role than the apparent role of 'expert'.

My criticism aside, it was still a very fun panel.

Comments

[tomomi.livejournal.com]

Seems like this would be a really great idea for a workshop. (Or several workshops, if a lot of people wanted to do it). The whole group sketches out a world together, and then, perhaps, everyone promises to write a story set there? My guess is the latter part would have to mainly take place post-Wiscon, but...

It would be interesting.

[julieandrews.livejournal.com]

I was actually thinking of suggesting some writing exercise groups, opposite the workshops. For people who didn't want to do the workshops or didn't get a story in on time.

That's a good idea for the focus of one of the exercise groups.