This past weekend I attended the 4th Street Fantasy Convention, and these are my notes about what I found useful and interesting and what thoughts and ideas I had that were sparked from these panels:
* How to Sound Smart on Panels.
* How Has Fantasy Changed in the Last 20 Years.
* Reasons Things Go Wrong ... In the Crafting of Stories.

MP3s of the (so far) first two days of panels.



General Notes
This is the second year I attended the restarted convention. They moved the hotel this year. The set-up at the new hotel was great (except that the mikes weren't broadcasting from the speakers on the right side of the room), but I didn't see anywhere that it was at a new hotel, and so was rather worried when it didn't turn out to be anywhere near the airport. It was also a worse place to get to on public transportation, so I was delighted to carpool with mischief03.

In general, the panels were good and useful and I have plenty of notes of things to try and remember. A few people commented, in a displeased way, that this year's panels were more writer-oriented than any other 4th Street they could remember and that was Just Plain Wrong. I'm biased--I like a higher percentage of writer- or academia-oriented panels than fan-oriented panels. Talking with other writerfolk, though, I realized that we all generally thought that last year's 4th Street was more writer-oriented than this year's. It's all in the perspective, I guess.



How to Sound Smart on Panels

Come with questions to ask other panelists. If you want to know the answer, probably others do too. This is also an excellent distraction technique.

Try not to interrupt (assuming you have a functioning moderator). Nod, hmm, or give other nonverbal "I'm listening" cues.

Don't poor-talk. (It's like giving a reading!) Don't apologize for your lack of knowledge or preparedness. Lowered expectations aren't your friend.

Don't ramble.

Confronted with an odd question that you don't know how to handle, the freebie answer is, "That's interesting. What led you to that question?"

There will be experts in the audience. Avoid absolute statements. Rather than, "Blah is blah," say, "The blahest blah that I've found is blah." As a bonus, you may have volunteers helping with your research after the panel is over.

Do basic research on your fellow panelists.

When you're a beginner on a panel, be frank about lack of experience (without poor-talking). Don't pretend to experience you lack.

Don't talk unless you have something to contribute--but you do have to contribute at some point.

If you say something stupid, admit it and apologize at once. Yes, other people noticed.

For Moderators

Sit at the end so that you can watch all the panelists and note involuntary physical reactions that indicate they've thought of a response. After, ask "Did you have something to add to that?" They will believe you are psychic.

Ask panelists what people most often get wrong in the area of their specialty.



How Has Fantasy Changed in the Last 20 Years

To the "boys won't read about girls" argument--yes, they will! As long as it is matter-of-factly presented that girls are doing things that they find interesting.

YA readers may lack a lot of the knowledge of fantasy/SF tropes, so it's more important to consider good exposition and ways to allow readers into a book. This may also help explain why YA F/SF books are arguably more often best-sellers than adult F/SF books. For example, the Potter books don't require a high level of how-fantasy-works knowledge and have entry points in being a school story, and orphan story, a coming-of-age story, etc.



Reasons Things Go Wrong

Don't get more invested in telling a type of story than in the story/characters in front of you.

Be aware of well-worn paths and don't fall into them unconsciously.

There is more than one good idea (sub-ideas, plot strands etc)--choose the one that leads to the right book.

Beware of your fallback position as a writer--the parts of writing that you're really good at--and don't get lazy.

As you write more things, keep an eye out to make sure you're not writing different versions of the same characters over and over.