Readercon 2010: "I Know These People. Personally."

A chunk of a Thursday night panel at Readercon 2010, with (from left to right) John Langan, John Kessel, Elizabeth Hand (moderator), Kit Reed, and Barry N. Malzberg.

Panel description: "Writers," Harlan Ellison famously claimed, "take tours in other people's lives." In his recipe for a two-month novel, Jeff VanderMeer advised, "Base at least some of your main characters on people you know and really like, BUT make sure they are not people you have spent a lot of time with." The roman à clef aspects of Virginia Woolf's Orlando or Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly may be clear enough, but what about that girl on the T with the really interesting face or that actor with the striking name? Using examples from their own work, our panelists explore the continuum between consciously employed technique and unavoidable side effect—the wages of the writer's magpie mind.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Readercon
• Elizabeth Hand
• Barry Malzberg
• John Kessel
• Kit Reed
• John Langan