This is a series of articles to give a flavour of this year’s 15^th Bristolcon and its first two-day event through the eyes of one often returning attendee – me. With 52 Programme items of which I made it to just 8, it is a somewhat limited view, but hopefully the following accounts of panels and events will be of some interest to those who were there and those who might have wished they could be!

At Sunday morning breakfast a lot of the talk was about the cold showers we had all endured – the hotel’s boiler having somehow failed to navigate the clocks going back and shut itself down in a tizz. However, refreshed – perhaps more so than we would have liked! – by our morning ablutions, we rose ready to face the first second day ever of Bristolcon.

I began with a panel on Writing Around Life, discussing the inevitable juggling act of guilt, duty, writing commitments and mental health that is the lot of every writer – before going on to a workshop on archery and sword-fighting!

Writing Around life

A panel discussing the different ways writers manage their time around earning a living, family and other life commitments.

Panel: GR Matthews, Sian O’Hara, David Green, Rebecca L Fearnley

Moderator: Shona Kinsella

Shona began by asking, quite simply, why are we talking about this?

Becci felt that, as writers, we don’t prioritise things that bring us joy enough

David, thinking in particular of high-level authors with big fan bases and delayed book release who have a lot going on, felt people needed to appreciate that the creativity tap can run dry. Too often the base can forget there is a real person behind the delayed book, someone who is experiencing unknown issues!

Sian felt that writing is very personal and it can feel self-indulgent to do things that are just for you, when measured up against other life pressures!

Geoff confessed to suffering from writer’s guilt, and feeling really guilty if he doesn’t write for a period of time. But he pointed out that ‘writing’ isn’t always about a book and a computer, sometimes the business of creating is jottings and scribbling and blogging (and writing book reviews and con reports!!!).

Leading neatly on from this, Shona shared her pet peeve that the maxim “you should write everyday” is dreadful advice, and asked “What are the other things that are not writing but creative?”

Geoff admitted to writing in the shower or while running. I have vague recollections of a waterproof pad being mentioned, though maybe Geoff was referring to that process of letting ideas marinate (ferment?!) while otherwise occupied.  Personally, I used to do that in school when I was on morning duty shepherding late-coming kids into registration, a great time for my mind to juggle the latest instalment of the Medusa’s story. As Geoff said, “Whatever you create, everything you do/experience contributes to that.”

Sian made the good point that you need to have something to write before you sit down at the computer. Which fits my own experience of workplace thinking time helping to make the writing time more productive. That pre-thinking time could make me almost impatient to put the words down when I finally reached the computer, rather than easily lured into internet procrastination. As Sian went on to say, “Being able to write freely comes from having the spare space and mental energy to write! And the Write every day maxim is advice from a privileged perspective.”

David – struggling with the mental image of Geoff writing in the shower, felt the ‘write every day’ mantra is a bit of a stick, and reiterated that walking, and/or listening to music is part of the creative process! He even cited one still unfathomable example, where the solution to a tricky plot point had popped into his head while watching (an entirely unrelated scene in) The Irishman!

Becci – offering reassurance to those many anxious writers – said that panic is a huge part of her own process, punctuated by tumultuous 3 am epiphanies about plot issues!  However, as all writers are different, it is important to take any writing advice with a pinch of salt!

Given that Joanna Harris in her guest of honour interview had said that “There are better ways to die poor than writing” Shona next question seemed particularly on point when she asked “how do you manage the time spent on something that doesn’t earn money (writing) when you have to work for a living?”

Rebecca – in the booklovers/authors dream job of school librarian four days a week admitted that. “I can get insufferable if I go without writing for a few days – so I justify writing by saying it is for the benefit/service for others.”   (Yes I am saving you from me when I am wrangry, you wouldn’t like me when I’m wrangry?!)

Rebecca added that “You can’t pour from an empty cup – you need to look after your own mental health rather than fixate on others!” drawing a helpful analogy with the airplane emergency oxygen masks – look after yourself, before you try to look after others.

David’s strategy is to cut down on video games and other entertainments to carve out writing time, but emphasised that you need your family to understand your need for that time!

Sian – had particularly felt this need to carve out writing time post covid (in so far as we are post covid – stay careful everyone). For example she had enjoyed a BSF writing retreat which helped to balance writing needs! She does a self-organised writing retreat fairly regularly taking a weekend in a hotel for a weekend as that is easier than finding a set time everyday around family commitments and internally conflicted neuro-divergent issues! The retreat approach gives her time of “Just being me rather than any of my other labels!”

For Geoff – parenting two teenagers alongside a school job which had included safeguarding responsibilities had made for some quite intense pressures. (For anyone who doesn’t know, a significant proportion of school safeguarding issues are revealed/disclosed at the end of the school on a Friday afternoon because that is when vulnerable children are confronted with a looming weekend away from the relative security of school). Fortunately Geoff has a more amenable kind of contract and an understanding wife – so the family understand his need to take himself off for a slice of writing time – and not to be interrupted!

But Geoff’s experience emphasises the need for writers to have “a conversation with family and people around us!” while also stressing that “You need writing rest just as you need physical exercise rest!”

Which again fed into Shona’s next question about “When facing burnout how do you refill the well?”

For Geoff it was a matter of refilling by reading – fantasy or history – or by playing games, going pub, playing music & singing! Journaling also helps as a different kind of written expression! You can’t work all the time and you can’t write all the time!

Picking up on that point, Becci has post it note on her PC saying

“rest is productive”

and (somewhat frightening) suggested that “roller skate derby smashing consenting friends is very productive.”  Whatever consensual violence might be your particularly cup of tea, the idea of finding “Something that just allows you to be in the moment!” is key.

As a lived example of Burnout and how not to do it, David related how in 2023 he decided to write loads and loads of books! Amounting to between 260k and 305k words in one year! The degree of hyper focus – head phones on, blanket hood and mouth guard to stop teeth grinding – led him to be hospitalised with a locked jaw! He had scheduled himself a rest period (in December!) but had delayed so long that physical health issues appeared – so no rest possible! So his main advice was “Don’t do what I did!”

Sian said simply,

“If my body needs to binge on four hours of Netflix then I need to accept that.”

Becci  picked up on the fact that so much of a writer’s sense of self-worth is tied to sales and revenue, “can I call myself a writer if I’m not earning money from it, because we prioritise earning money!” However, she had one experience of a reader who had written a thankyou note to say, “Thank you for your book, I mightn’t be here without it.” So Becci’s concluding comment was, “You don’t have to belittle your craft because – it is important even if it doesn’t earn money!”

It was a well-made and salutary point that the ways our writing can touch people, maybe just one person, is more important than the crude financial considerations. After all, we tell stories to be heard, to make a difference to people we’ve never met – and isn’t that just kind of beautiful all by itself?!

As a final question Shona asked, “How do you get started if you only have a half hour of protected time?”

Becci said simply that “It concentrates the mind.”

David – found that low medieval music gets him in the zone! Like being in an old tavern! He also has playlists and soundtracks to match the tempo of the scene to make the writing a bit more efficient.

Sian pushes through the brain fear “of I can’t write” just get something down and leave gaps to put the good bits in later – even if its simple square bracketed notes to future self [do good writing here]

Another point mentioned was lots of use of placeholders for names etc to stop the momentum being sapped by the delay/research/procrastination as you agonise over the inworld etymology of a character/city name!

Archery in fantasy and writing fighting

A 2-hour jaunt into the do’s and don’ts of writing about fighting and weaponry in fantasy, from traditional bows in your Robin Hood retelling to the compound bow of the apocalypse, to vikings with swords and dwarves with axes, come and explore how to write authentic, immersive fighting your reader won’t be able to put down.

With Alicia Wanstall-Burke

Alicia kindly offered some trigger warnings for her well prepared and comprehensively equipped workshop (it took Graham quite a few trips to bring all the kit in to display).  Mainly the warnings were about blood in videos and Alicia’s sweariness – but what can you expect from a Quokka?!

The talk included an intriguing power-point with embedded videos showing some do’s and don’ts of archery depiction in fiction. Tom Clews was also on hand, fresh from his HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) training, to offer some advice and (intimidating) demonstration of form in wielding various kinds of bladed weapons.

Alicia has been wielding a bow since well before she left Australia for the cloudier shores of the UK and her expertise includes currently being ranked 26th in UK for woman’s compound bow, including some feats achieved while almost de-feeted by the boot that persistent ankle injuries have forced her into.

Like most writers she does a great deal of research and that makes for a colourful internet search history that one would not want to broadcast while flying through the US. For example, “how heavy is a severed human head?”  But verisimilitude is important and the rule is “imagine an expert reading the book.” At the same time a writer should pull their punches a little and not go into too much detail (Looking at you ‘Herman every- last-aspect-of-whaling Melville’ and ‘Victor let-me-tell-you-about-the-Parisien-sewer-system Hugo!’)

A few pithy points I jotted down inbetween toying with some long and short swords

• Bows are tailored to individuals they are not interchangeable like guns are! If characters do swop bows/pick up a random bow make them shit at using it!
• English longbows are shit for hunting! Hunting bows are shorter for closer and nimble work!
• Longbows lose accuracy and penetration at 100 yards!
• There’s no “hold” in archery – you draw and release, this whole taking a bead on an enemy and holding the taut bow as you track him is utter BS.
• Long bows are very susceptible to weather, not just with wet strings, but with wet feathers on the arrows!
• Respect the physics which must work in your works!
• On camera the Disney film ‘Brave’ is the most accurate portrayal of archery, while Arondir in Rings of Power is less so – not just for holding the shot, but for drawing his bow with some clunky inappropriate reverse grip.
• Swords have different natures, purposes and associated training. For example, you can’t expect someone trained with a Viking sword to make a decent stab at using a longsword. The longsword has a much longer hilt to allow two handed or hand and a half use where a Viking sword is purely a one-handed weapon!
• Axes are heavy and need to land first time!
• Sometimes wearing a sword is part of the culture eg it is only permitted to people of high status, so factor that into your world-building and consider how your characters (especially if low born) might get access to a weapon!

And with those thoughts ringing in my ears it was off to the last few events that form the subject of my fifth and final Bristolcon 2024 post namely.

• Cli-fi, subgenre or necessity – a panel close to my own heart (and research)
• Sex or Death – which is easier to write about
• The closing ceremony