BronyCon 2018 - Quills and Sofas - Ideas Wanted! · 8:02pm May 6th, 2018
Hi all! For those of you who do not know, I'm the Vice-Chair of BronyCon 2018! If you've been to BronyCon in years past, you may well know Quills & Sofas is kind of the general Fimfiction hangout area!
In previous years it's been relatively quiet on the 'Things to do' end - there's usually big sheets of paper on the table to doodle on, maybe a couple other things, but that's about it!
I'd like to change that. For this year, we want to bring you all more fun stuff to engage with, so that you can drop in and out and be assured there's cool things to do!
For example, one idea would be to have a notebook that starts with a single sentence written in it, one that begins a story, and all weekend people can drop it, add one more sentence, and so it will evolve over time - you can keep dropping in and reading how the story evolves all weekend long, and keep adding to it as others do as well!
Another idea would be to have some sort of writing competition - Like Iron Poetry, or a speedfic contest, or anything, really! I want to hear any and all ideas, no matter how crazy! At worst, I'll just say 'Alas, we cannot'!
And yea! Thus, this is an open invite - what would YOU like to see Quills & Sofas add? What concerns do you have? What cool things would you want to see? Please post in comments!
Iron Poetry sounds great. I'll keep thinking.
The speedfic contest sounds really fun, especially if we can get typewriters involved. So does the sentence-by-sentence build-a-story.
I seem to recall a few printed-out copies of The Eye of Argon last year. Something similar with truly terrible ponyfics (e.g. read until you laugh, then pass it to the next person) might be fun as well.
Speedfic contest sounds interesting.
The typewriters did very well last year and could be incorporated in some fashion if Rob supplies them again.
Thanks for first replies! For speedfic/Iron Poetry, I know we'd definitely want judging/judges, so suggestions for judging methods, or volunteering for such judging, would be awesome!
A short story competition would be fun. Or how about you do the "One sentence" thing and at the end of the con, you post the complete story on your Fimfiction account?
Maybe a mic/camera (or just corner spot. I'm not familiar with the geography of the area yet) for a "read aloud a random fic" thing. Could incorporate well with the speedfic idea.
I'm liking the Iron Poetry and Speedfic ideas.
Also, gonna share this blogpost with my brothers, who will be attending Bronycon for the first time this year... actually, I shall share this in other places, too... the more con attendees that see this blog, the better
You could always have a really long roll of paper for people to write a tanka on (5-7-5-7-7 syllables), where one person writes one line before somebody else writes one to create a very long poem by the myriad authors who go to Q&S.
Idea: contact Bad Dragon for loaner toys, and—
4854942
is this an extended form of Haiku-like structure? I haven't heard of a Tanka before. How does it work?
4854935
Can you elaborate? What would be the purpose for the mic/camera? Q&S isn't a big room - it fits about 8 tables or so that can seat 6-10 each, IIRC - if that helps your geography!
4854933
I had some plans to transcribe the One Sentence thing and upload it were it to happen, yes!
Speedfic contest sounds fun. How about a bad fanfic contest where you have to include certain elements in your story which are revealed at the start of the contest and then the goal is to write as bad a story as possible?
Oh wait I'm one of the only people who'd enjoy that :P
Maybe offer some prizes for the writing competition, like a free meet and greet with one of the voice actors or special guests?
I have plenty of good story ideas, just not sure how to put them into words
4854926
I second an impromptu "Hoof of Argon" reading.
4854946
It's definitely haiku-like. I think generally one poet writes a 5-7-5 (haiku) and then another poet writes 7-7. We can also have each person write only 1 line before handing it off to somebody else. It's a collaborative form that can be between two or several people. It's been a while since my form poetry class, but I think my professor used monks as an example, where they'd pass the same scroll around between them to keep adding onto the poem.
Generally, the intent is to have the new stanza be relevant to the one preceding it, and the poems are usually about nature (the seasons). I think the technical term for the collaborative version is renga. Here's some more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka
4854955
I actually have a very good candidate story for that.
4854956
Cool! I'll add that to my list and see about some kind of parchment paper we can try turning into a poetry scroll(s)
4854949
As the author of the Hoof of Argon classic Love on the Acres of Sweet Aplles, challenge accepted. Just set a time and name your weapon, sir.
4854964
Ooof, that's pretty
goodbadhorrible. Looks like I have some stiff competition. I challenge you to a one hour duel of the laptops at BronyCon. We'll let Morning Sun pick the elements to be included in the story. Have at ye!4854946
Cam and mic for posterity recording. I tend to want to record everything. -_- Not sure if there's a YouTube channel for BC events/faffing about, though.
Speedfics FTW
4854945
He's a horse, not a dragon
4855057
I can't believe I made that mistake.
4854983
We do have recording setups! It is not free, though, so it becomes a case of where best to dedicate those resources. Though even if there isn't that, one can always cell-grab everything one wants :)
I want Type writers, there is something fun about just hearing the sound of a click clack of a typewriter. (I own one, but I am not going to transport it by plane to the con. It is heavy, easily over 20 lbs. 1920s era typewriter)
That would be an interesting idea, a time limit of who can type the best poem without a spelling mistake, and we can have a poster board or a whiteboard to tape all the poems written on the typewriter contest for all to read.
A speed fic sounds fun, might actually force me to have something that is not over 100,000 word fics. or even 10,000 word chapters.
Not a Q&S thing as such, but I'm concerned with the number and quality of writing panels that are being turned down. I'll be interested to see what panels actually show up on the agenda, but I have a sinking feeling that the writing track is being reduced and that there's not a coherent prioritization behind what's being selected.
I didn't get the chance to signal boost this last night, and I promise I will try tonight, but I did have one idea I wanted to get in before I forget:
I have noticed that I often don't realize someone is even there until late in the con, or I spend all weekend trying to hunt someone down just to say hi. To that end, maybe a scheduled fanfic mixer/meet and greet on Friday afternoon, at a time that doesn't conflict with writing track panels? Just a time when we can all check in and see who's there and mingle and make plans for the weekend (and fanfic readers have the best chance of running into a writer they wanted to meet.)
I'll toss out more if I think of them. Keep up the good work!
4854926
Thirded.
4855408
This. Also, maybe just a check-in board where you can post when you plan to show up, or if you're trying to get together a group for meal plans or something? Just a big ol' corkboard with lots of scratch paper and spare pins.
4855408
4855727
Definite great idea I am fairly sure I can make happen!
So right now my list of things I would like to do is:
1. See if Rob can do typewriters again
2. Look into setting up Speedfic, Haiku, and Intentional Badfic events.
3. Signin sheet / planned mixer
4. Hoof of Argon-like thing.
5. 'Add a sentence to this story' story in which people write it over weekend
6. GaryOak's idea on doing an extended Tanka on parchment or similar poetry-fitting paper
And my list of 'Look into, but these require budget or other things that are more difficult'
1. Recording setup
2. Prizes? I'm less inclined to favor any of the contest-like events having prizes. I feel like that'd take the focus away from 'Write what's most fun' and add stress as people try to win.
4854929 4854926 4855115 4855777 Unfortunately Rob's not going this year and he provided all but one of the typewriters last year. Worst case scenario, I can get organized with him to see if we can take them somehow.
I have two ideas:
-I say we do an open mic for authors in Q&S. See how everyone does telling jokes.
-One sentence round-robin. Each person writes the follow-up line to a story. And then we get
Tara Strongsomeone to read it. (Edit: Duh me. This was already suggested)4855905
The open mic could be a blessing and a curse. But might be fun
But the one sentence round robin would sound fun.
I am sorry to hear that, My first time going to BronyCon and I, their is just something about a typewriter.
Still thank you for the news and letting us know about things.
4855905
The open mike could go wonderfully, horribly, or both. Especially if Super Trampoline gets involved.
I'm all for it!
4854964
Yay, my favorite fanfic of all time!!
4855408
I definitely like the met and greet idea. The continuing story ide and the poem are great idea as well.
I know at Everfree they have the Iron Writer competition. I'm not sure if that would work at BronyCon but it might be fun!
I was going to respond to 4856049 by noting that if an Iron Author competition is going to happen, it needs a LOT of support — not only does someone have to organize and oversee the writing period, collect the entries, and announce the winners, but every year, Everfree's competition requires a half-dozen judges to sacrifice their Friday night getting all the stories ranked. I almost always help out with that when I'm there.
And I realized … if the entries are being gathered electronically, the judges don't necessarily need to be on site, do they? Since the chances of me making Bronycon seem fairly low at this point, I might be able to volunteer to help judge remotely. For obvious reasons I couldn't help run it, though.
If someone wants to step up to properly organize this and run the competition, I would also suggest talking to Xepher, who runs EFNW's. He might be willing to share the software that runs the competition, which would save a LOT of reinventing the wheel.
I think everything I was going to suggest already has been.
I thought of another idea. A bunch of people write a short, really quick prompt in a piece of paper. Then all are folded and thrown into a hat. When someone picks up a prompt they have to write the shortest possible story they can for that prompt.
If you're the vice-chair, will you even get to spend time in Q&S?
Re. ideas: One word:
gugcstudentguild.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/EVENTS-WEB-TOGA_PARTY-320x185px.jpg
4856443
That's a fun one!
4856563
I have no idea
Dunno if it's been mentioned already...
Live mic fic-readings?
This!
Iron Author event would also be good. I love speedwriting and I think most people do too!