Paperlegends

[einahpets]

So if any of you don't know, paperlegends had their announcement post today!  Yay! 
I've met the best people through this event, seriously. 

Anyway I was looking through the schedule and I noticed artists now have to submit drafts.
This is actually pretty cool, cause it makes artists more involved. 
But I think there's probably more that would make it a little more involved/better for the artists.

Question for my writer friends and artists too!! --
As it's done now, drafts aren't due until after artist/author matchups happen. 
Before matchups, the 15K word counts are taken in faith.  I can't tell you how many of my artist friends got burned because the author didn't have the suggested amount, and ended up dropping out or the artists were not able to make art to the fullest of their abilities since time is shorter for artists.
I was wondering if submitting a minimum 15K rough draft before match-ups is something you think would benefit your Big Bang experience?
As an artist, I see it as more of a guarantee that you're serious about finishing and I have more confidence going into the anon matchups.  ALSO!  I have so much more material to work with and create beautiful art from.  And please tell me of a writer who doesn't want to see beautiful art?

Question for my artist friends --
How would you feel to have betas required for artists too? 
There are so many talented artists in fandom who would be more than happy to take a look at your in-progress work.
In the past year I started sharing my IP work with fellow Merlin artists and it makes a world of difference. 
Be it for anatomy, composition, perspective issues, coloring, the atmosphere in the piece, how to do a certain technique, etc. 
Having an online critique makes such a difference, and it created such a supportive community. 
It's like an art class, but for free, and on your time!!
Would you guys be interested/supportive of this?

I've already talked to a few friends, but I wanted to see if there were similar/different thoughts from my flist/the Merlin community.

Feel free to pass this along!

Comments

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

Hi there. Here from varioud links on the flist. :)

I think it's a good idea, both the 15K and the artist betas/drafts.

I did the first paperlegends, which was as I recall only 3 or 4 months long? Right after the match up my artist made it clear she needed time and information. I sent her my chapter outlines, character paragraphs, photos of the cast that best reflected the modern AU look of each character, music that was inspiring me as I wrote, photos of the various locations in which it would occur. I sent several updates of the fic along the way. She asked me to finish early, so I finished more than a month early, to give her time. (I'm still burnt out from the experience, LOL.)

In the last month, she stopped replying to my emails except with an occasional "so sorry, I am really busy." I figured she didn't like the fic or something since she was still posting day to day on her journal, which is fine, I can see why people might not have liked it.

In the end, I didn't see any of the art before it was posted (and it was posted late). I liked it, but it didn't include any elements of anything I had sent her and didn't have much connection to the story itself. She also took it down a while back so it's not available any more.

All that to say, more accountability and accomodation for both artist and writer may result in more satisfying collaborations on both sides.

I don't write anymore in Merlin fandom, so it won't affect my participation or not, but those are my $.02. Good luck to everyone in the next round!

[reni-m.livejournal.com]

Thank you for stopping by and adding your thoughts!

I agree, in a fest like this it's always more successful when there is accountability and accommodation. I'm sorry to hear that your experience with an artist wasn't as successful as it should have been. This is where I see having a beta for artists would really help. It's far too easy for an artist to not connect with anyone until it's time to post.
Going in, I'm always aware that it's a joint project. Because of that I'm constantly talking with my writer and showing them my in-progress photos making sure they're involved as well. But if I also had a second pair of artist eyes, my beta would be able to stop me before something 'not fly' got through.

[gwyntastic.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I was going to grab your story for that Bigbang. I wanted to really badly. Just from the summary I wanted to make a mock up of the nat geo that Merlin wrote. I had so many IDEAS. I heard about your artist troubles and I kick myself every single day for not grabbing you up when I had a chance. I KNEW your story was going to be amazing just from the summary. And it was amazing, when I read it I was so mad at myself for not picking you. I'm STILL mad at myself to this day that I didn't beat up your artist and steal you from them.

[mellacita.livejournal.com]

LOL. Don't worry about it! I am very flattered you liked it and the idea was interesting at all! It was cool to have art for the fic at all--I have never had art for a fic before except my own photos, so it was still a cool experience. I just wish I could have had one of those cool, collaborative experiences. I'm still glad I did it and I get a bit nostalgic for it sometimes. :)