We attended several panels at BookCon 2018, and they were all amazing! Whether they were on the Main Stage or in one of the smaller meeting rooms, the panelists and moderators were all in top form this weekend.
Read on for some descriptions of panels, plus our favorite author quotes from each event!
The Panels
There were a wide range of amazing panels to choose from, but one of the most popular was the ‘Magic & Power’ panel featuring authors Tomi Adeyemi, Brandon Sanderson, Cassandra Clare, Marissa Meyer and Daniel José Older.
The panel focused on writing magic systems — from inspiration to fine-tuning.
“If a character is all-powerful, there’s no conflict, and conflict is the engine that drives a book.” — Cassandra Clare
Another popular panel was titled ‘Power Moves,’ and focused on writing strong female characters. Melissa de la Cruz, Tahereh Mafi, Kendare Blake and Victoria Aveyard all spoke about how their main characters’ personalities are shaped, why female empowerment is important, and why there isn’t a ‘strong male characters’ panel.
“The strongest women I have known have been strong from the inside out.” — Tahereh Mafi
6/ Kendare: "You don't have to be strong to be a worthwhile character or person. Unsympathetic female characters don't get the kind of leniency that male characters get. Like, Dr. House is a dick. But we still like him!"
— Fictionist Magazine (@fictionistmag) June 2, 2018
If you’re interested in ‘Power Moves,’ check out our livetweet thread above!
.@torteen's LGBT+ Authors panel was so positive and lovely! From left: Charlie Jane Anders, VE Schwab, SL Huang, and Seth Dickinson! pic.twitter.com/O3SIFkYDiw
— Fictionist Magazine (@fictionistmag) June 2, 2018
We also attended Tor Teen’s LGBT+ Authors panel! Charlie Jane Anders, VE Schwab, SL Huang, and Seth Dickinson talks about gender and sexuality norms, breaking stereotypes, and more!
“There was a time period where we were using analogs to be progressive and now we have to be careful to not use analogs to be regressive.” — VE Schwab
Alisha Rai, Jasmine Guillory, Zoey Castille/Zoraida Cordova, Claire Legrand and Sarah Morgan chatted about what an “alpha” is, how toxic masculine characters can be used to teach young women what not to do, and more!
“If we’re telling girls that you should romanticize boys standing in your bedroom at night… Then we have a problem.” — Zoraida Cordova
We hope you had fun at BookCon if you attended, and if you didn’t we hope you’re enjoying from afar!
