A couple of days ago, I returned from Orlando where I attended the fabulously well-run Harry Potter fan conference, Ascendio2012. I'd been invited months ago to present my Writer's Guide to Harry Potter workshop as part of their Quill Track, a mini-conference within the fan/scholar symposium specifically geared to writers.
Fan conferences like Ascendio are usually a very different animal than writer conferences like RWA or SCBWI. To be perfectly honest, I usually feel more at home at the writer conference. While I'm definitely a fan of Rowling's work and love to hunt out every hidden clue or mythical reference in her brilliant subtext, I admit to being a bit of the odd-woman-out in fan culture where most everyone dresses in wizard robes, will stand in lines for hours to see the YouTube stars of StarKid, and get into heated arguments over whether their favorite ship should have sailed instead of the ones Rowling set afloat.
I say none of this with any disrespect whatsoever. Quite the opposite. I find the people at fan conferences incredibly energizing and quite enlightening. I've learned so much about what readers care passionately about...which can be quite different than the query guidelines and craft techniques which you'll learn in workshop after panel at a writer conference like RWA. And yet, to get published, you must master things like POV and the dreaded synopsis in order to have readers who may debate minute aspects of your worldbuilding as if it were real or craft their own stories based on your characters.
Which is why Ascendio, the latest conference sponsored by the HP Education Fanon was so exciting for me. While many of the other fan conferences I'd attended included workshops, like mine, geared to writers, Ascendio had planned a whole writer's track, The Quill Track, complete with booksignings by famous authors and pitch sessions to coveted agents.
This combination is a spark of brilliance and pairs beautifully because fan culture is filled with creatives. So, at Ascendio, not only do you find a subset of people going wild over the Pygmy Puffs at the Craft Faire, but you'll also encounter a subset hyped up by a screening of fanfilms, or live theater written and produced by fans, and still others dancing the night away to the awesome Wizard Wrock. With the new QuillTrack, a home was provided for writers of original and fanfiction alike to get together to study and improve their craft and learn how to get it before readers to develop their own fans.
And here is where the key difference can be seen between a conference like Ascendio to RWA -- while the average attendee at RWA is well into her adult years and may be approaching middle-age, the average attendee at a fan conference is an older teen or in her early twenties. Yes, there are plenty of adults as well, especially at Ascendio, but the youth energy drives this conference. An energy that packs a room to hear the fabulous LogosPilgrim present a mystical reading on the spiritual insight gained through understanding Snape, but then empties before a presentation by a publishing professional that would be standing-room-only at RWA. It's actually quite refreshing to see lines of fans clamoring to get into a screening of StarKids' A Very Potter Musical, a fan-based YouTube sensation that launched Darren Criss's Glee career, but open slots left in pitch sessions to wonderful agents like Joanna Volpe and Carlie Webber - something that would never happen at RWA.
Standing outside the agent pitch session, I found myself talking to a young Hufflepuff, around 16-17, calmly waiting her turn to pitch her completed YA novel to one of the agents. I asked her to tell me about her story, and her eyes lit up and her hands waved into action as she got all enthused. The details she shared spoke of a creativity I envied. Her story envisioned a teen space odyssey that I thought might be quite marketable. Then I asked how long was her novel. 9,000 words.
And this is the real reason why I love to speak at conferences like Ascendio, even if I find myself sitting alone there more frequently than I would at RWA. In exchange for the energy I absorb and the fresh understanding I draw of what the reader desires most, I feel I have something valuable to offer in return. These young writers, while deeply in touch with what appeals to them in regard to characterization and plotting, can be a bit fuzzy regarding the specific craft techniques that make a story readable and the arcane business practices (called publishing) one needs to navigate to get that work out there. Some have fallen prey to those on the more unscrupulous side of the business.
If you're a YA writer, let me encourage you to attend a fan conference geared to a YA audience. No, it probably will not give you the breadth of workshops and contacts that RWA or SCBWI can offer, but you'll meet and absorb something quite distinct and incredibly empowering -- the real, raw energy of the YA consumer. It can take your breath away.
Unfortunately, Ascendio is the last conference HPEF has planned. Some fandoms can continue conferences for years and years. The Star Wars Celebration in Orlando still boasts 25,000 - 35,000 attendees annually. But the Star Wars franchise has continued with new releases to fuel the fans' frenzy.
As the last Harry Potter book was published in 2007 and the last movie released a year ago, the divination waters for upcoming HP releases from Rowling are quite murky. With the release of The Casual Vacancy in September, Rowling seems to be steering her career in a firmly different direction than the fantasy-driven youth culture of Harry Potter. But she's not yet bolted the gates to Hogwarts. Hope remains alive in the breast of the Harry Potter fan that we may yet, in a few years from now, see a new saga following Albus Severus, Rose, Teddy, Victoria... the next generation.
Perhaps it will be out in time for the children of the Potter generation to read it to their own kids...and then dress them in costume and wrock away at Ascendio part 2!
See you there!
Have you ever attended a fan conference? What was your experience?
PS - To celebrate Ascendio and as a special offering to those attending my workshop, I listed The Boy Who Lived Comes to Die, my analysis of the ending of Deathly Hallows, for free on Kindle. That offering runs through the end of today and anyone can download it for free. If you don't have a Kindle, you can use the free Kindle for PC app.
Logging you in...
@mlmjr1 · 666 weeks ago
You mentioned something that piqued my interest though: "What readers care passionately about."
I'm always interested in what actual readers care about. All writers should be. But a quick trip around the writing blogosphere and it becomes painfully obvious that we rarely even consider what actual readers care about. I'm talking about readers who aren't also writers. (Of course many fans might write fanfic and stuff but you know what I mean.) It's healthy to hear from readers who don't necessarily think like us writers. They provide an essential perspective.
Mind expanding on what you've come away with after attending conferences like Ascendio2012 in regards to actual readers?
susansipal 84p · 666 weeks ago
I can best answer in regard to HP fans as those are the ones I've been around the most. So it may vary slightly depending on the fandom. But from what I've seen, Rowling's fans really get into the details that spark their imagination and worldbuilding elements or characters that ring totally true to them. Quidditch - with its fantasy element that borders on their real-life school/sports experience, is very popular. The angst of the teen relationships and who ended up with whom really sparks a lot of discussion because they tend to put themselves and their own relationships into a similar perspective. The ambiguous Snape or the darker characters really catch their interest because they see them struggling with a darker world that many readers face in real life.
Also, and I think this is especially true for YA, there is the meeting of where their search for personal identity is either affirmed or heavily influenced by a character in the novel. So many readers identify so strongly with one of Rowling's characters...and these identifications vary widely with many of the prominent characters, and even some of the less prominent, having their own 'fan clubs." I think this is an element that worked very well for Rowling in this age group -- so many of her characters, whether Slytherin or Gryffindor, Death Eater of Order member, faced doubts and insecurities and were misunderstood by their peers. That's how a lot of youth (and adults) feel, and in reading about a character that faces that and yet comes into their own, we feel strengthened ourselves. And then want to connect with that character again and again, perhaps even dressing the part.
Overall, and this is a point I've made repeatedly on this blog and in my guide, is the ability of Rowling to ENGAGE her reader. She doesn't just tell a story, she engages the reader in it, in discovering the secrets, in searching out clues to the mysteries, in playing with her characters and exploring her fun world. Her details are so fully realized that readers want to write their own fanfic, form their own wrock bands, create their own fanart, attend fan conferences. It's all because Rowling didn't settle for good enough, but instead gave the reader more.
I think, honestly, it all comes down to passion. Rowling inspired passion because she put so much passion into the story. Technique, research, and smarts only gets you so far. It's the passion conveyed from the author to the reader that will really invest them in the story.
Does that make sense?
@mlmjr1 · 666 weeks ago
I think all fandoms are similar in ways. As you said, they may vary slightly (in specific details), but I think they are more alike than they are different. So, learning from one can teach you about many others.
Secretly, I was Headmaster of Hogwarts last summer during a sort of role playing thing on the Internet. It was an actual school with students and professors and assignments and awards (This was all before Pottermore had arrived). I have immense respect for real life Headmasters because running a fictional school was surprisingly a lot of hard work. lol But I enjoyed the experience tremendously. Even wanted to do it again this year, but couldn't fit it in to my schedule.
But I brought all that up because I have to say that many of the things you mentioned about the fandom, I experienced firsthand through running that school. I can honestly say that you are so right about it all. And you summed it up succinctly.
On a basic level, us writers can use this information by allowing our characters to just be "human", and we should have fun playing around in the world's we create because if we aren't having fun, then the reader probably isn't either.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the craft and the business side of writing that we fail to enjoy the moment. I can't speak for J.K. Rowling, but it seems as if she had just as much fun spending time in her world as readers have, maybe even more since she has all the secrets.
It's also likely that she had no expectations. She simply wrote what she loved. I think that's always the best writing advice. :)
susansipal 84p · 664 weeks ago
And if you're ever Headmaster of Hogwarts again, you MUST let me know!!!!!!
Lisa Gail Green · 666 weeks ago
susansipal 84p · 666 weeks ago
Farida Mestek · 666 weeks ago
susansipal 84p · 666 weeks ago
Farida Mestek · 666 weeks ago
susansipal 84p · 666 weeks ago
Katy · 666 weeks ago
susansipal 84p · 664 weeks ago
I'm hoping that Ascendio will continue in the future, even if on a sporadic basis. But, there are other HP conferences. I'm not sure how often LeakyCon will continue, they have one coming up in August, but I know there are other smaller ones around and one is coming up in London next year, I think.
jamigold 41p · 665 weeks ago
And wow!--about the young writer you met. So many new writers to reach out to! :)
My recent post It’s (Writing) Olympics Time!
susansipal 84p · 664 weeks ago
@ClaireCaterer · 665 weeks ago
@ClaireCaterer · 665 weeks ago
susansipal 84p · 664 weeks ago
Thank you!!
@janflora · 665 weeks ago
susansipal 84p · 664 weeks ago
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