Flights of Foundry 2024 Quick Recap, Day 1
Catherine Tavares posted her recap of what she attended at Flights of Foundry immediately after the convention. I took a little longer to collect some of my thoughts and notes, but I hope you enjoy! I’m going to have to do mine in chunks by day, so this post just covers the Friday (day 1) events!
Recovering from Burnout: Burn out is rough, it’s real, and it’s difficult both to recognize and overcome. In this session we’ll be talking strategies for dealing with burn out and moving past it – gently. (With Joyce Reynolds-Ward moderating, and Crystal L. Kirkham, A.D. Sui, and Sophia Babai speaking)
Though ironically in the very first slot of the convention, this was a FANTASTIC and much-needed panel about different types of burnout (and how they can look like other mental health issues), things that can help nourish you when you’re burnt out, and ways to recover from burnout. I learned a lot from this panel, especially about how to identify and deal with my own episodes of burnout!
Character-Driven Worldbuilding with Personality Tests and Tarot: What does ‘worldbuilding’ mean to you? Graying maps with ripped corners, an entire functional elvish language, a Notion so grand it has an index longer than your grocery list?
What about gossip and significant looks across the room? What about aunties fighting over the check, or starting a duel because your nemesis finally got sick of you unbuttoning the top button of your starched white shirt?
In this presentation, you’ll learn methods on worldbuilding from the characters in your story, rather than solely from the customs and evidence they leave behind. How might we wrap a protagonist in an environment that best shows off who they are?
Whether you swerve from traditional ideas of worldbuilding—or you’re still trying to walk off that Notion comment—this presentation will share ideas on building your world bottoms-up, and creating believable, airtight conflict within it. You’ll learn how to find inspiration in tools and traditions like Western astrology, personality tests, and systems from your own personal background, and you’ll leave with exercises, worksheets, and a reading list. (Presented by Ash Huang)
This was a fast-paced presentation filled to the brim with great information about both worldbuilding and character development, with a larger emphasis on the later. Ash had a bunch of suggestions for ways you can use personality tests, astrology, tarot, and enneagram to flesh out characters, plus worksheets for using these techniques to develop character personalities. I’m still processing a lot of the information from this panel, but I’m looking forward to putting it into use for some future characters!
Online Magazine Publishing: Publishers answer questions, talk about risks and challenges, share information for folks who’d like to venture into online publishing themselves. (With Stephen Granade moderating, and Rebecca Bennett, dave ring, Marguerite Kenner, and myself speaking)
Next up for me was the first panel of the convention I was on, which was about online magazine publishing. Though it’s been about four and a half years since we closed Mad Scientist Journal, I was delighted to talk about how the magazine had started, functioned, and ultimately closed. It was a little bittersweet for me at times, because I do miss having the opportunity to publish new authors (and experienced authors) and work with artists regularly, but I also appreciate how much time I have for my own writing, now that we’re not publishing a story weekly!
This was it for me on Friday, as we had tickets to a concert that evening, so I kept my convention schedule minimal. Next up will be my Saturday, which was a jam-packed day (and might even require two posts!).
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