Writercon UK: write up

[brutti_ma_buoni]

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

Comments

[cassiopeia7]

You are a sweetie, and thank you for all the lovely comments. I'll just say that most artists hope for a writer with your talent for writing the one sentence that sets off the art Muse, your patience for us dumping a bazillion sketches into your mail, and your willingness for back-and-forth. There will always be artists who want to take that story and do what they will with it, and the hell with the writer's vision; there will always be writers who want to micromanage their artist's every move. Then, in the middle, there are the true collaborative partners, and those are the experiences I live for. :D

an (all-human) barbecue

Sounds like a case for Sam and Dean! ;D

I'll just say that katekat1010's art is beautiful and amazing, and is there any chance she could be temporarily lured over to SPN fandom? ;D

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Nnnaawwww, you're very sweet too. Collaboration ftw!

But hands off our Kate. We don't have enough artists in the Buffyverse to be giving 'em away. :-)

[snogged]

Very cool! I'm glad you had a good time at WriterCon.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Thanks! It's lovely to get together with fandom.

[quickreaver]

Very interesting! And that's a great "Artist's List." I've done umpteen digital book covers for the romance/erotica e-book industry and they tend to let the authors art-direct. Frequently, it's a recipe for disaster. The authors only know what they DON'T want, and the scene they DO want on their cover isn't always visually interesting. ("This is the part where Peter stares longingly at Paul for the first time. And they're in downtown Milwaukee. Both wear jeans and a t-shirt.") Yeeeeah. That's not gonna sell your book, sorry.

OR ... in the case of fantasy authors: "Okay, in the book there are ogres and hobbits and man-eating plants and these cool weapons that look like spears with spiked balls and I have seven main characters and I WANT IT ALL ON THE COVER. And I want to pay you $50 for it. Enjoy!"

I have THE BEST collaboration with monicawoe, though. I'd work with her any day. She's a very visual author; she thinks like a screenplay writer. I usually have trouble picking great scenes to illustrate because there are so many! And she's

[brutti_ma_buoni]

Oh, *all* of this. Yes. Especially the one about time for art - as much as possible, even for superhumans like cassiopeia, who produces so much art quickly. I really hadn't understood or factored it in when I tried to organise some collaboration, which was a useful learning experience for me, but caused much stress to others.

And yes, you *have* to work together, or it's not collaboration, it's just illustration (or writing to a picture prompt, for a reversebang). Have some discussions, use each others' knowledge/views/experience/requests as inspiration or challenge or reassurance or just a hell of a great resource to have working with you on a project. It makes the whole thing quite different to working alone, or you're really not doing it right.

[katekat1010]

i'm so glad the talk went so well lady!!! thank you so much for including my stuff with your presentation (though i gotta know, did you only use stuff i made for you?). and thank you for including me with these other artists who are so frigging talented they take my breath away. i think sometimes the reason why i do it the way i do it is because i don't have the same kinds of talents they do (and so couldn't illustrate a scene if i was asked to, you know?).

your brainstorming results look AWESOME! if i could get that from authors most of the time it would make the world a spiffy place, omg!

[thismaz]

Nice summary and thank you for the reminder about the question - What things might be cool to draw?
If I ever take part in a big bang again, I am definitely going to suggest that question be included in the instructions.