Writercon UK: write up
Belatedly, here's a write up of my talk at writerconuk. I've not reposted my slides, as none of the artwork is mine - instead, links are here to all the masterposts and the beautiful artwork, so you can go and compliment the artists directly. And the also fabulous stories written by others (well, and me, but I'm not actually reccing my own stuff *iz not quite that shameless* but you know, do read it if you want).
- banner by the also lovely kazzy_cee!
My talk was about the great pleasure I've had this year in discovering the possibility of working on projects collaboratively with artists. It isn't something that happens a lot in the Buffyverse fandoms these days, so it was pretty much new to me as I moved into SPN and CWRPF.
I started the talk by introducing three types of collaborative working with artists:
First, the illustrative artwork. I used a bunch of the amazing posters that katekat1010 has made for me over the years (see all of her work at her journal). Although Kate sometimes spontaneously creates these posters, they are usually requested, and when making the request you give a few ideas like the main characters, theme/plot, strapline - so there are a few elements where the writer contributes to the process. But after that, it's all Kate's creativity!
Secondly, the 'big bang' style, where a writer writes a draft, then summaries are posted and an artist claims you and you then work together. I did this for the first time at genteensybang with knockoutloser as my artist. You can find the masterpost of our work Once Upon a Time in the Woods here.
Lastly, the 'reversebang', where an artist creates one image, which is claimed by a writer. The spn_reversebang was my first experience of this, but I ended up working with two artists - cassiopeia7 for Persistent Illusion, and sailorhathor for Dovetail Shuffle. In both cases, my artist came through with way more art than the challenge demanded - and in both cases we discussed writing as well as art development. Great partnerships! You can judge how fantastic that experience was by the fact I got the idea for this talk for it, and that cassiopeia7 is currently making The Most Amazing Art for a J2 in spaaaace fic of mine!
(Just to show I do look at stuff that isn't made for me, I also pointed to the fab gen crossover fic Paul where selecasharp and lightthesparks created the most amazing synergy of writing and art which made me writhe with laughter while reading. The audience, who mainly don't look at SPN stuff at all, giggled helplessly. Success!)
I talked a little bit about how collaboration works - how there's scope to negotiate on how fic and art interact (would it be okay if this character got that phone call while still in view of character B? Because it's a way more interesting visual than character A being alone on the phone?); how friendships can develop; and emails entitled DUMB QUESTION which contain the in-no-way-dumb and urgent question Which season of Sam hair are you picturing for this story? make you realise that a) anything after season 5 hair Is Just Wrong and b) it's possible this isn't obvious in your writing.
And then on to other good things that come out of collaboration. I've learned a lot from artists - partly about art processes, like drafting, betaing, how artworks can be part finished in some areas and barely sketched in others (there's a great example in the knockoutloser post above where she wasn't able to complete one draft in time but posted it anyway - which is fantastic for anyone that doesn't understand art creation at all).
Artists also have interests I don't share, which have brought a lot to some fics - for Dovetail Shuffle, sailorhathor very kindly linked me to a whole bunch of magic videos, and especially how-magic-happens, which made the fic so much better and was great fun in itself. Cassiopeia7 knows way more about aircraft than I do, which is currently informing the in spaaaace fic too!
And artists can do things writers can't. For Persistent Illusion, the banner illustrates the background supernatural happening that lies behind the fic: lots of flames and fleeing minions. It confirms that this isn't just a Dean and Cassie Get Coffee in College fic, even though the first page or so reads like an all human AU. For Dovetail Shuffle, there is no simple happily ever after - but sailorhathor created a postcard which worked so much better in confirming a basically happy ending than a lame little epilogue would.
Which isn't to say all of this is easy. I've had great experiences, but of course not all match ups work perfectly. Sometimes RL unexpectedness, sometimes one person just wants more than the other is giving, sometimes communications breaks down. I tried to run a small collaborative challenge, and I was stunned by the level of work involved. If it's a school project, you are the teacher: monitoring deadlines, encouraging, reassuring, trying not to match up deadly enemies etc.
Then we moved on to talk about how readers and artists need different information about a fic - so a great teaser summary for a reader isn't necessarily a great summary to let an artist know if you're the one she wants to work with. We brainstormed a few ideas of what artists need to know - everything from costume and time period to environment, themes/motifs that might be drawn, mood of the fic and even how it ends or anything else that might squick them.
See our thinky efforts!
We agreed that the genteensybang model was really good - asking for a fic summary but also the question What might be cool to draw, which gets writers to think at least a little bit like artists.
This was my attempt at to answer that for my teensy bang fic:
What things might be cool to draw? wereflying-squirrel Gen! Seriously, what more can *anyone* need? Gen as a squirrel, Gen transforming *into* a squirrel, squirrel-Gen transforming back into a human... It's a domestic, sweet-tempered fic otherwise, full of interiors and human-face conversations over coffee or popcorn. But if you like creating outdoor and animal images, you'll have several options for squirrelly scenes, plus an (all-human) barbecue. There's also an h/c flashback for a bit of emotional depth if you like that kind of art. Ooh, and an option for good-kind-of-mad scientist Misha, who is off screen in the fic but referred to.
And my lovely fellow con members agreed I hadn't done a bad job. Except that they did point out 'all-human barbecue' is a hell of a lot more disturbing than I meant it to sound… Writer d'oh.
But I distracted them by showing them the amazing poster by sagetan for ghostyouknow27's story Flukes. Because sometimes the best reason of all for collaborative working is that beautiful things get created.
- banner by the also lovely kazzy_cee!
My talk was about the great pleasure I've had this year in discovering the possibility of working on projects collaboratively with artists. It isn't something that happens a lot in the Buffyverse fandoms these days, so it was pretty much new to me as I moved into SPN and CWRPF.
I started the talk by introducing three types of collaborative working with artists:
First, the illustrative artwork. I used a bunch of the amazing posters that katekat1010 has made for me over the years (see all of her work at her journal). Although Kate sometimes spontaneously creates these posters, they are usually requested, and when making the request you give a few ideas like the main characters, theme/plot, strapline - so there are a few elements where the writer contributes to the process. But after that, it's all Kate's creativity!
Secondly, the 'big bang' style, where a writer writes a draft, then summaries are posted and an artist claims you and you then work together. I did this for the first time at genteensybang with knockoutloser as my artist. You can find the masterpost of our work Once Upon a Time in the Woods here.
Lastly, the 'reversebang', where an artist creates one image, which is claimed by a writer. The spn_reversebang was my first experience of this, but I ended up working with two artists - cassiopeia7 for Persistent Illusion, and sailorhathor for Dovetail Shuffle. In both cases, my artist came through with way more art than the challenge demanded - and in both cases we discussed writing as well as art development. Great partnerships! You can judge how fantastic that experience was by the fact I got the idea for this talk for it, and that cassiopeia7 is currently making The Most Amazing Art for a J2 in spaaaace fic of mine!
(Just to show I do look at stuff that isn't made for me, I also pointed to the fab gen crossover fic Paul where selecasharp and lightthesparks created the most amazing synergy of writing and art which made me writhe with laughter while reading. The audience, who mainly don't look at SPN stuff at all, giggled helplessly. Success!)
I talked a little bit about how collaboration works - how there's scope to negotiate on how fic and art interact (would it be okay if this character got that phone call while still in view of character B? Because it's a way more interesting visual than character A being alone on the phone?); how friendships can develop; and emails entitled DUMB QUESTION which contain the in-no-way-dumb and urgent question Which season of Sam hair are you picturing for this story? make you realise that a) anything after season 5 hair Is Just Wrong and b) it's possible this isn't obvious in your writing.
And then on to other good things that come out of collaboration. I've learned a lot from artists - partly about art processes, like drafting, betaing, how artworks can be part finished in some areas and barely sketched in others (there's a great example in the knockoutloser post above where she wasn't able to complete one draft in time but posted it anyway - which is fantastic for anyone that doesn't understand art creation at all).
Artists also have interests I don't share, which have brought a lot to some fics - for Dovetail Shuffle, sailorhathor very kindly linked me to a whole bunch of magic videos, and especially how-magic-happens, which made the fic so much better and was great fun in itself. Cassiopeia7 knows way more about aircraft than I do, which is currently informing the in spaaaace fic too!
And artists can do things writers can't. For Persistent Illusion, the banner illustrates the background supernatural happening that lies behind the fic: lots of flames and fleeing minions. It confirms that this isn't just a Dean and Cassie Get Coffee in College fic, even though the first page or so reads like an all human AU. For Dovetail Shuffle, there is no simple happily ever after - but sailorhathor created a postcard which worked so much better in confirming a basically happy ending than a lame little epilogue would.
Which isn't to say all of this is easy. I've had great experiences, but of course not all match ups work perfectly. Sometimes RL unexpectedness, sometimes one person just wants more than the other is giving, sometimes communications breaks down. I tried to run a small collaborative challenge, and I was stunned by the level of work involved. If it's a school project, you are the teacher: monitoring deadlines, encouraging, reassuring, trying not to match up deadly enemies etc.
Then we moved on to talk about how readers and artists need different information about a fic - so a great teaser summary for a reader isn't necessarily a great summary to let an artist know if you're the one she wants to work with. We brainstormed a few ideas of what artists need to know - everything from costume and time period to environment, themes/motifs that might be drawn, mood of the fic and even how it ends or anything else that might squick them.
See our thinky efforts!
We agreed that the genteensybang model was really good - asking for a fic summary but also the question What might be cool to draw, which gets writers to think at least a little bit like artists.
This was my attempt at to answer that for my teensy bang fic:
What things might be cool to draw? wereflying-squirrel Gen! Seriously, what more can *anyone* need? Gen as a squirrel, Gen transforming *into* a squirrel, squirrel-Gen transforming back into a human... It's a domestic, sweet-tempered fic otherwise, full of interiors and human-face conversations over coffee or popcorn. But if you like creating outdoor and animal images, you'll have several options for squirrelly scenes, plus an (all-human) barbecue. There's also an h/c flashback for a bit of emotional depth if you like that kind of art. Ooh, and an option for good-kind-of-mad scientist Misha, who is off screen in the fic but referred to.
And my lovely fellow con members agreed I hadn't done a bad job. Except that they did point out 'all-human barbecue' is a hell of a lot more disturbing than I meant it to sound… Writer d'oh.
But I distracted them by showing them the amazing poster by sagetan for ghostyouknow27's story Flukes. Because sometimes the best reason of all for collaborative working is that beautiful things get created.