{"id":33120,"date":"2016-09-12T06:30:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T18:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33120"},"modified":"2016-09-11T21:28:12","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T09:28:12","slug":"preparing-a-masterclass-on-building-fantastic-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/09\/12\/preparing-a-masterclass-on-building-fantastic-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing A Masterclass On Building Fantastic Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"National<\/a>

National Writers’ Forum<\/p><\/div>\n

Last Wednesday I posted about the inaugural National Writers’ Forum<\/a>, forthcoming next weekend, 17-18 September, as part of which I’ll be presenting a masterclass on Building Fantastic Worlds<\/a> — which of course if right up my alley.<\/p>\n

Since then I’ve been working pretty hard on finalising the presentation, which has been both challenging and also a lot of fun. The challenge part is because it’s 90 minutes in duration and even allowing for question time, that’s a reasonably long time for a presentation.<\/p>\n

\"Chocolat_Joanne<\/a>Another reason it’s challenging is because there is so much material one could<\/em> cover, so you have to decide what’s absolutely vital to include and what can potentially be omitted. Another part of the challenge is captured by a quote attributed to the great Joanne Harris of Chocolat<\/em><\/strong> fame:<\/p>\n

” ‘Writing tips’ don’t exist. Tips are for make-up, gardening, cookery. The phrase you’re looking for is ‘skills acquired over years of work.’ “<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So trying to transfer some of those skills, in a manner vaguely reminiscent of a Vulcan mind-meld, in a 90 minute presentation is<\/em> challenging.<\/p>\n

\"MindMeld-thumb-300x225\"<\/a>

The famous SF Signal Mind Meld icon<\/p><\/div>\n

However, challenges can, by their very nature, also be fun. Also, as some who had been a lover of fantastic worlds almost as long as I can remember, as well as a working with them as an integral part of my own writing, it is impossible not to enjoy the opportunity to immerse myself in the topic.<\/p>\n

So I hope the sense of challenge, but also the fun and enjoyment will characterise the masterclass experience for participants next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday I posted about the inaugural National Writers’ Forum, forthcoming next weekend, 17-18 September, as part of which I’ll be presenting a masterclass on Building Fantastic Worlds — which of course if right up my alley. Since then I’ve been working pretty hard on finalising the presentation, which has been both challenging and also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,50,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-what-im-doing","category-about-writing","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33120"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33123,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33120\/revisions\/33123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}