I have had an extremely productive weekend as well as having lots of fun

I spent my time on the reception desk writing my CLFF Wave 22 fic (What? It was a writercon and I was writing! :-P)

I wrote a drabble for speakr2customrs drabble panel

I made an icon using tips gained from bogwitch's icon tutorial panel -

And I even found time to play some Sims during the free time (more on that later)

I also need to give extra virtual hugs to bogwitch and hesadevil by making my goodie bag extra special by sticking Smallville stuff in it instead of Buffy stuff. I now have a lovely Clark pen, a Lex keyring and a poster which has Spuffy on one side and Clark on the other

I was a very happy Hils and it was so sweet of you guys to think of me like that *more hugs*

Then I won a Smallville promo pic with James and Tom in the raffle so that made me even happier

The thing that I really loved about this even that although we were all there as Jossverse fans the actual talks could be applied to any fandom. I learned something from every single one so that was great

We kicked off with kazzy_cee talking about accessibility and making fic easy to read. This journal, fandomcorner and Death-Marked Love are all bad because two of them use white text on a black background and the other is black text on white. Still, at least I don't use green. LOL.

peasant_ did a wonderful talk on ways to overcome writer's block. I'm quite lucky really in that beyond getting stuck on plot points occasionally I've never really suffered from it. What this did make me realise is how reliant on feedback/comments I am which really I shouldn't be. I should be writing for myself not for other people.

I am one of those people who tends to avoid writing fight scenes wherever possible as I don't know how to describe them properly. So speakr2customrs talk on that made me realise just how many different ways can be used to attack someone and that the characters involved can usually direct the way a fight will play out. I need to work a fight scene into a fic now so I can practise

xanpet2000 did a fascinating talk on how to advance plot when you're stuck. I had no idea that plots have a structure to them and I found the notes she gave us really useful for those times when I do get stuck. Will definitely be referring back to them at a later date

In the drabble talk done by speakr2customrs I learned that the placing of the words is just as important as the number and that the last line is the one with all the impact.

bogwitch's talk on making icons was great because it taught me something that has bothered me for years. I'd always thought there was no way to save icons with all the layers still in place so I could go back and edit later. Turns out all I needed to do was save it as a .psp file. D'oh!

We ended on a hilarious talk on giving feedback (where is all the pr0n?!) with obviously some serious elements too on ways of giving good and constructive feedback

Then today we had the raffle *covets pretty Tom and James pic*, the swapmeet where I got rid of ALL my Buffy books (save The Lost Slayer which I kept because it is awesome) and inherited some comics. YAY!

We held our AGM and it was decided to run another similar event next year so I hope as many of you as possible will come. As I said, even if you're not in the Buffy fandom there is still lots to get out of it.

And to end there are a few pics of me in action and a couple of vids. If you want to see all the photos have a look at writerconuk

( Piccies )