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Jul. 5th, 2011 01:28 amIf you can read this, you’ll know I have finally had time to sit down in a cafe with coffee and wifi and do a bit of catch-up. Right now, for me, it’s late Sunday and I’m winding down after the masterclass. I want to detour (before I tell you about any of the rest of it) and say that the masterclass was totally, totally brilliant. People come back, year after year, and I can entirely see why. I’m still thinking about the implications of stuff I’ve learned. I need to read more of Paul McAuley’s work and to re-read the stuff I already know, because two sessions with him have shown me a bunch about the way he works and thinks and also helped me think about how I work, both as a writer and as someone who thinks about writing. I need to read Mark Bould’s work, because his insights into how politics and criticism can work together were simply wonderful. I need to sit down with Claire Briarley and talk and talk and talk. And that’s just the beginning. All three teachers were great, and so were my fellow students. I want to keep in touch. I want more days.
Apart from new friends and a totally delightful time, what did I get from the masterclass? Contexts, mostly. An understanding of how I fit and who I am and what I can do and that this field is peopled with folks who I respect and like and want to spend more time with and learn from. Some of them even laugh at my jokes.
Every evening after class, we had dinner and then groups of us had drinks. I spend some of my birthday money on cider (for I am a class act) and some of that cider was drunk at the Spaniard’s Inn (Turpin territory) and each and every evening was delightful.
Because the days were long and I have worked hard, I’m not precisely perfectly well. Tomorrow I shall exercise one of my options and do a bit less work, which is why I’m writing this blog entry late on Sunday night. You need to know that I’m very, very happy.
I’m hoping I did OK my first night here. I certainly had a fine time. The BSFA people are particularly cool, also very friendly and funny and welcoming. They laughed at all my worst jokes and laughed harder at my best jokes. We talked about lots of things. And some of them have read writing of mine. I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as I did. (I also hope certain Adelaide friends have forgiven me not recognising them when they turned up, entirely unexpectedly!).
If my language is not particularly Gillianish right now, this is due to fatigue. I don’t need words tomorrow, although possibly they will return for Tuesday. My updates here won’t depend on words, however, but on time. Tomorrow I’m looking at changes in room use and furnishings over time to test a suspicion I have about space and culture and contemplating how to write interior spaces, checking out the BL SF exhibition, meeting ADM, and doing various delayed messages. Tuesday I get a half day off (since I worked over the weekend) and am investigating family stuff and, in the afternoon, following up the room structures with luxury goods (at the V&A). Wednesday I’m checking out everyday materials (the shoes and ships and sealing wax day). Wednesday night I have to write it all up and sort it out, and on Thursday I leave London.
Before then, I have character decisions to make. I have now just 26 days to sketch them, fill them in, work out the stuff of their lives, and begin to sort out plot arcs. Here I have the resources to see if I can push my frameworks further and so here is where this work must be done.
In other words, I’ve finished my training and am back in research mode. Research and friends and SF and the Middle Ages: July is good and life is better.
I need to update. Getting online is – as so many people say when they travel – easier said than done. It’s now Monday afternoon and I switched my program round. This morning I sorted out some of my issues with saints (though not the ones I expected – the exhibition at the British Museum doesn’t have the focus I was hoping, but it’s still perfectly amazing) and now know exactly which characters need development and their gender and their age and their basic personalities. The British Museum did all this. It means I have a lot of writing up to do late tonight and on Wednesday evening, but it’s good stuff. I also sorted out some dissertation thoughts before the Museum, so, although I started early, it was afternoon before I knew it. I haven’t done my mundane work yet – that comes between lunch (now) and the British Library.
The British Museum felt very odd. I haven’t been there since the Library shifted out, and it was rather strange to be walking through exhibitions here once I used to read Medieval manuscripts. I would feel old because of this, but people kept guessing my age at 35 or 36 over the weekend, so I’ve decided to ape eternal youth.
There’s a lot more I should say – especially how great it is to have met so many LJ friends (and how they’re even nicer in person, albeit with more wicked senses of humour) but this is long and I need to do more work.
I still haven’t resolved mobile issues. Each one I sort, another comes up. Such is the life of the telephone user…
PS This post was *finally* brought to you by the British Library and its free wifi.
Apart from new friends and a totally delightful time, what did I get from the masterclass? Contexts, mostly. An understanding of how I fit and who I am and what I can do and that this field is peopled with folks who I respect and like and want to spend more time with and learn from. Some of them even laugh at my jokes.
Every evening after class, we had dinner and then groups of us had drinks. I spend some of my birthday money on cider (for I am a class act) and some of that cider was drunk at the Spaniard’s Inn (Turpin territory) and each and every evening was delightful.
Because the days were long and I have worked hard, I’m not precisely perfectly well. Tomorrow I shall exercise one of my options and do a bit less work, which is why I’m writing this blog entry late on Sunday night. You need to know that I’m very, very happy.
I’m hoping I did OK my first night here. I certainly had a fine time. The BSFA people are particularly cool, also very friendly and funny and welcoming. They laughed at all my worst jokes and laughed harder at my best jokes. We talked about lots of things. And some of them have read writing of mine. I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as I did. (I also hope certain Adelaide friends have forgiven me not recognising them when they turned up, entirely unexpectedly!).
If my language is not particularly Gillianish right now, this is due to fatigue. I don’t need words tomorrow, although possibly they will return for Tuesday. My updates here won’t depend on words, however, but on time. Tomorrow I’m looking at changes in room use and furnishings over time to test a suspicion I have about space and culture and contemplating how to write interior spaces, checking out the BL SF exhibition, meeting ADM, and doing various delayed messages. Tuesday I get a half day off (since I worked over the weekend) and am investigating family stuff and, in the afternoon, following up the room structures with luxury goods (at the V&A). Wednesday I’m checking out everyday materials (the shoes and ships and sealing wax day). Wednesday night I have to write it all up and sort it out, and on Thursday I leave London.
Before then, I have character decisions to make. I have now just 26 days to sketch them, fill them in, work out the stuff of their lives, and begin to sort out plot arcs. Here I have the resources to see if I can push my frameworks further and so here is where this work must be done.
In other words, I’ve finished my training and am back in research mode. Research and friends and SF and the Middle Ages: July is good and life is better.
I need to update. Getting online is – as so many people say when they travel – easier said than done. It’s now Monday afternoon and I switched my program round. This morning I sorted out some of my issues with saints (though not the ones I expected – the exhibition at the British Museum doesn’t have the focus I was hoping, but it’s still perfectly amazing) and now know exactly which characters need development and their gender and their age and their basic personalities. The British Museum did all this. It means I have a lot of writing up to do late tonight and on Wednesday evening, but it’s good stuff. I also sorted out some dissertation thoughts before the Museum, so, although I started early, it was afternoon before I knew it. I haven’t done my mundane work yet – that comes between lunch (now) and the British Library.
The British Museum felt very odd. I haven’t been there since the Library shifted out, and it was rather strange to be walking through exhibitions here once I used to read Medieval manuscripts. I would feel old because of this, but people kept guessing my age at 35 or 36 over the weekend, so I’ve decided to ape eternal youth.
There’s a lot more I should say – especially how great it is to have met so many LJ friends (and how they’re even nicer in person, albeit with more wicked senses of humour) but this is long and I need to do more work.
I still haven’t resolved mobile issues. Each one I sort, another comes up. Such is the life of the telephone user…
PS This post was *finally* brought to you by the British Library and its free wifi.