{"id":13376,"date":"2019-07-04T08:25:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T22:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=13376"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:31:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T06:31:44","slug":"a-changing-world-highlights-from-the-2019-speculative-fiction-festival-writingnsw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/a-changing-world-highlights-from-the-2019-speculative-fiction-festival-writingnsw\/","title":{"rendered":"A Changing World \u2013 Highlights from the 2019 Speculative Fiction Festival @WritingNSW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Check today\u2019s date \u2013 because ten years from now life as we know it will no longer exist. A simple diagnosis from your doctor will involve consulting your genome sequence. Climate change will have altered every landscape. Virtual reality will be fully integrated into our everyday routines. We may not even need our human \u2018meat sacks\u2019 to exist and might have uploaded our conscious minds to The Cloud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Me + Festival Director Keith Stevenson<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Only last week, I wrote an article for a parenting magazine about how vital creativity will be for the future of our children<\/a>, given the speed of technological progress. What I discovered at the 2019 Speculative Fiction Festival last weekend only affirmed that view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change today is rapid, and speeding up, and affecting all areas of life \u2013 including speculative fiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Was Then, This Is Now<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The festival opened with a modern-day examination of various gateway novels, books that got panelists hooked on the genre. Popular favourites such as Mary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein<\/em> (1818), Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em> (1897) and HG Wells\u2019 War of the Worlds<\/em> (1898) were each so old they could be forgiven by panelist Rob Hood<\/a> for their outdated literary style and lack of female characters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stephen King\u2019s The Shining<\/em> (1977) gave panelist Kaaron Warren<\/a> permission to be scared and got her writing horror, but also taught her errors not to make again. Hindu mythology and David Eddings\u2019 Pawn of Prophecy<\/em> (1982) opened up worlds for panelist Shankari Chandran<\/a>, the latter also being her literary equivalent of \u2018cheese on toast\u2019; though were also full of bigotry, racism and sexism, with simple characters and stereotypical tropes. As I often tell my creative writing students<\/a> and editing clients<\/a>, the way authors write today is very different from how we wrote even twenty years ago, and for good reason \u2013 the literary landscape has changed. The rise in visual entertainment such as television and film means readers love being able to see \u2018a movie in their head\u2019 as they read, an affect seriously compromised by afflictions of \u2018Over Blight<\/a>\u2019 or \u2018Filter Words<\/a>\u2019 (click for free editing tips on both!). Our changing social and moral code also mean character viewpoints, arcs and descriptions only a decade-old now read as outdated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worldbuilding 101<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Indeed successful novelists today need to build immersive worlds that will fully engage readers without offending them. Epic fantasy panelist Mitchell Hogan<\/a> usually starts his worldbuilding by defining the exact rules of a magic system, though shies away from religion to avoid offending readers, a safer bet being \u2018ancestor worship\u2019. Both panelist Catherine McKinnon<\/a> and science fiction chair Keith Stevenson<\/a> prefer to start by worldbuilding a place or planet, then asking questions of that place until they\u2019ve created an appropriate social and political system, within which certain characters can then experience misconceptions and change; whereas fellow panelist Mykaela Saunders<\/a> focuses on the concept of sovereignty in the future and climate change, thus exploring the present through the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Art of the Deal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Even the way authors get their work to readers is changing, with book contracts addressing (though not necessarily making good use of) rights for different media, such as film rights, audio and translation. Chair David Henley<\/a> urged authors to only retain film rights if they had good industry contacts, a view supported by publicist Brendan Fredericks<\/a> who said, \u201cask yourself, what are you going to do with any rights you retain?\u201d Fantasy panelist Tiffany Tsao<\/a> kept her translation rights, for example, as she had industry translation contacts in Indonesia. Authors still generally have little influence over how their books are marketed to the reading public, though can now nominate dealbreakers such as the use of ethnic motifs and symbolism on a book cover. Epic fantasy author Sam Hawke<\/a> was too overwhelmed by the joy of selling a book to a commercial publisher to have any dealbreakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Worry! Self-Publishing Doesn\u2019t Mean\n\u2018Do It Yourself\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Independent \u2018indie\u2019 or \u2018self\u2019 publishing is still on the rise as an alternative to commercial publication, with panelists Mitchell Hogan<\/a>, Dionne Lister<\/a> and Abigail Nathan<\/a> all agreeing the option involves authors learning to treat their writing like a business and their name like a brand. As you may know, I run a creative support business<\/a> myself, helping writers turn their stories into books with editing<\/a> and assessments<\/a>, formatting, publishing and printing<\/a>; but, once their words go \u2018live\u2019, an indie author really needs to separate their personal life from the business of selling their work. Abigail urged authors to \u2018take the romance out of it\u2019, Mitchell suggested authors concentrate on building an audience, and Dionne suggested meeting other indie authors online and learning from their knowledge. \u201cDon\u2019t give up,\u201d she added, \u201cjust because of one bad review,\u201d as there are plenty of other readers out there. She recommended reaching bookworms through Booktastik<\/a>, a website set up only a few years ago to promote book deals, competitions and promotions directly to readers. The panelists also agreed editing prior to publication was vital to developing your brand, and to shop around for a good price. As a writer, Dionne said, it\u2019s important to employ an editor because \u201cyou can\u2019t see the kinks in your own writing as you\u2019re too close to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Creeping Dread, The Frightful Scare<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Readers are still reluctant to get close to horror writing, however, reported Kaaron Warren<\/a> and Rob Hood<\/a> on the horror panel, with one reader saying one of Kaaron\u2019s books wasn\u2019t horror. \u201cShe liked it,\u201d Kaaron said, \u201cso she didn\u2019t want<\/em> it to be horror.\u201d Rob Hood agreed that horror \u201coften gets dismissed as a genre\u201d, whereas it actually offers hope \u2013 because as a reader you\u2019ve survived the book. Panelist Kyla Ward<\/a> said she likes to \u201cget through the readers\u2019 defences\u201d as a writer and believes poetry can tell horrific stories \u201cquite economically with great intensity.\u201d Aaron Dries<\/a> offered a definition of horror as extreme empathy, \u201csomething you feel in your guts,\u201d and admitted he had a fundamental fear of losing his identity, such as through Alzheimer\u2019s, mostly due to his day job working in trauma recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Real And The Not Real<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Aaron also explained that, for him, horror isn\u2019t about \u201cthe monster in the cupboard\u201d, it\u2019s about the family who owns the cupboard, for which he also takes inspiration from his day job, particularly conversations he wished he’d had but which he hadn’t been awarded. Fantasy panelist Tiffany Tsao<\/a> also took her influences from lived experiences, particularly of hoping she might fit in somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science Fiction Now<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Panelist Shauna O\u2019Meara<\/a> urged authors to create worlds that normalized features we wished fitted more into our present, such as solar panels and electric cars, though also voiced the danger of speculative fiction becoming \u201cawareness porn\u201d. Chair Cat Sparks<\/a> furthered this, fearing that \u201cscience fiction fails as a literature of purpose because it\u2019s ghettoized as entertainment and not taken seriously. The label is damaging to the literature.\u201d Whereas, she added, \u201cwe are the people who can see the future.\u201d Panelist Shankari Chandran<\/a> called science fiction a \u201cTrojan horse for empathy\u201d in that \u201cit\u2019s thrilling and entertaining but, without knowing it, you\u2019re being schooled and challenged to wonder why the present day order exists? You don\u2019t know that\u2019s happened until it\u2019s happened.\u201d Fellow panelist Margaret Morgan<\/a> agreed that science fiction authors can \u201cmarshal creativity for political causes\u201d, though it\u2019s also not needed as authors have no responsibility as creators to instigate social change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideas Generator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Panelist James Bradley<\/a> agreed that science fiction is limited in its ability to change the world, yet posited that it can influence<\/em> it, since the purpose of fiction is empathy. Scientist Michael Gillings<\/a> pointed out that public opinion can flip in a decade due to egalitarian ideology, as it did with such social changes as slavery, votes for women and same-sex marriage. \u201cScience fiction,\u201d he said, \u201coffers the potential for collective learning about ethics, morality, philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival then closed with thoughts to the future, such as genome sequencing and virtual reality. \u201cEverything,\u201d said panelist Elise Bohan<\/a>, \u201chas evolutionary underpinnings. The biggest threat to life is not AI (artificial intelligence) but humans. We have not evolved enough to cope with the technology we have. We are wired to think tribally and short-term.\u201d Michael Gillings joked that, \u201ca good plague would solve everything,\u201d though also spoke about dysbiosis and in particular a reduction in our microbial flora relatable to a rise in anxiety and depression and a susceptibility to disease. Given the amount of bacteria living in symbiosis within our bodies, he also offered the terrifying idea that \u201cmaybe we\u2019re not really the ones driving the bus!\u201d It might sound like a horror novel, but writers often use theories and ideas at the cutting edge of scientific study and technology to inform their stories, and so I left the festival incredibly inspired, my creative imaginings fired about what the future might be like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What About You?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Whether you were at the festival, or only reading about it through my blog, what do you think the future holds? <\/p>\n\n\n\n