by Leigh Perry / Toni L.P. Kelner
I realized something wonderful last week.
I was at Gen Con, which is THE convention for tabletop gaming. Board games, role-playing games, card games... This year was the 50th Anniversary, and over 60,000 attendees descended upon Indianapolis for the four-day extravaganza. Yes, you read that right: over 60,000.
Now I've spent many happy hours playing tabletop games ranging from Monopoly and Life, to Dungeons and Dragons, to Trivial Pursuits, to Munchkin and Uno. But the real reason I went was for the Gen Con Writer's Symposium. The Symposium is one of many programming tracks associated with Gen Con, meaning that it's a sideline for the con. But remember, the con itself was 60,000 people--this sideline included several thousand attendees. Under the watchful eye of Marc Tassin, who runs the show, we had signings, readings, and of course, panels about the writing process. It was the programming that made me think of something.
Now when it comes to my author-related appearances, I mostly stick to mystery conventions, with science fiction & fantasy conventions a close second. Now and then I go to a romance convention, too. But the writers at Gen Con are a whole 'nother breed. There's not a huge mystery presence--as far as I know, the only mystery writers were me, my husband Steve, and Author Guest of Honor (and Former Femme) Charlaine Harris. Most of the rest write SF&fantasy, but there were horror writers, nonfiction writers, romance writers, and authors of children's books. And unsurprisingly, given the setting, many of them write for the gaming industry: games themselves, game-related novels, game background material (known as fluff, by the way), and so on. But when it came to setting the program, Marc didn't segregate us by genre or style or anything like that. Which was absolutely right.
When it came down to it, no matter what writers write, we're more alike than we are different.
We all worry about pacing, writer's block, cover designs, marketing, foreshadowing, structure, dialog, interactions with editors and fans, that all-important first page. Sure, there are some genre-specific issues: mysteries tend to start with a murder, for instance, and romances usually have happy endings. But overall, we writers all have the same sets of concerns and issues. That's kind of wonderful. It's reassuring to know that while my writing may be solitary, there are bunches of other writers struggling with the same problems I am. Sometimes their solutions work for me, and vice versa, but even when they don't, it's good to not feel alone.
So even though our books are shelved far apart at the bookstore, when it comes to the work, we writers are all part of the same tribe.
FYI: Gen Con--and the Writers Symposium--happen every year. The next show will be August 2 through 5, 2018, back in Indianapolis, Indiana. And the city loves Gen Con!
As a game fan, this sounds like so much fun. If only it were closer. Because there's no way I can get time off work that early in the month to make traveling that far worth it.
Posted by: Mark | August 23, 2017 at 08:38 AM