A Call to Conversation (1)--with =abstract1106

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Welcome to my first article focusing on getting to know the deviants behind the artwork! This will be posted every Wednesday. If you have a deviant you'd like to see included, please send betwixtthepages a note with the subject "Call to Conversation"--make sure to include the deviant's name as well as a reason you think they'd make a good interview subject! Also, feel free to send along a question or two you'd like to have answered by them!

This week's featured deviant is RipleyNox. I took a small biography from her deviantID to use here as a sort of mini-introduction-- I'm a problogger and online content consultant. I interview people for podcasts, create websites and consult for tech startups and nonprofits. When I'm done with my work day, I write tons of fiction.


So, you're a problogger. What exactly does that entail?

I get paid to write blogs for myself and others, and having multiple streams of income coming in from various blogs via information products, etc. Some use affiliate programs too but I've never been interested in them. Too much like "real" work. :)

I write in a LOT of places, but my favorite place to write right now is this blog: contentstud.io


You also interview people for podcasts. What do you talk with them about?

I co-host the "Sharing Economy Radio" show with Bernie J. Mitchell out of the UK (I'm in the midwest US). We talk about creative careers, co-working, which means collaborative communities focused on supporting independently-run businesses, entrepreneurship, and socially aware businesses.

Here's the RSS: www.engaging-people.com/se_pod… and iTunes: itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/th…

We've done others, mostly one-offs, for the past year and a half, but they aren't as interesting as these are now due to the fact that our topics tend to age quickly. The web/online engagement industry moves extremely fast.


I noticed, in your gallery, a folder called Build your Platform, which includes a number of deviations with useful tips and advice for garnishing exposure. Can you sum most of your advice up into a few paragraphs for us?

Attitude is the mainstay of success in a creative industry - not credentials or talent. A person can have a lot of talent and do nothing with it because they are so involved in their personal drama that they aren't taken seriously. The worst part about this is that the person involved may not even realize it. They could be Beethoven in their own mind.

It starts with being open to learning new things, experimenting, and connecting with people publicly. In the social age, an excessive concern over privacy gives the public the idea that you're actively trying to hide something. Instead, be open about what you're hiding - for example, if you travel a lot and don't want to be stalked, blog about your travels after you're back.

Once you're learning, connecting, and building a library of content that can be shared online, find the people who are already active in that community, such as other professionals and enthusiastic amateurs, and help them by creating resources based on your lessons so far.

In short, share and share alike - help them, be open to their help and advice, don't try to do everything yourself, and most of all have fun with it. Creativity dies quickly when your enthusiasm runs dry. That's why so many creative people today - like myself - actually have four or five jobs instead of one.


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You admin a group with the same name--:iconbuild-your-platform:. Does this group focus on only one type of art, or is it a place to go for advice in getting exposure for all types?

It's a group focused on advice for all creative careers. Most of our audience is currently writers and we choose the next topic based on reader requests, so many of our deviations are focused in that arena. However, I would LOVE to take on other fields, such as visual art and music. I know professionals in practically any creative field you can think of and would pick their brains for the community in a heartbeat if there was a call for it!

I started the group because I was using my journal to write about those topics here to see if anyone was interested. They were, so I created a group so others could participate without seeing all of my personal writing mixed in. I'm big on focus and streamlining content delivery - I'd have to be, because it's what I do. :)


What can we find in the group gallery and journals?

In the journal you'll find digests of current community news, interesting deviations, and questions posed by members. In our gallery you'll find our interviews and articles, and other articles and deviations that are relevant to the group's mission. We don't accept art into the gallery. Our mission is to help educate people who are pros, or who are looking to make the leap to pro, by teaching them about current tools and practices that are proven to work by professionals who are out there right now, in the trenches, making it happen for themselves.


You also admin a group called :iconsuperwritershelp:--this is a critique-focused group, right? Can you tell us a little more about it?

I've only been an admin (or "writer's general" as they call it) for less than two months as of right now. I wanted to improve my critiquing skills since it helps the community, helps me understand the critiques I get more thoroughly, and also helps me self-critique by spotting errors and inconsistencies in my own writing after seeing it in others'. They have folders for different art types. You just join, submit, and someone will critique it.


In a deviation you titled the Fiction Writer's Cheat Sheet, I noticed you repeat--several times--that you shouldn't write and edit at the same time. Can you explain your reasons?

Editing by definition is removing or changing something. When you write (or paint) you are creating, which is adding something. If you are trying to edit and create at the same time, you're not making much progress. Imagine trying to take a picture and modify it in the same moment - it simply doesn't work. You'd waste a lot of time going back and forth.

I know so, so many writers who have written five or ten chapters of a book, decided to make a small change early on, and ended up reading through and editing the rest of the book before it's finished. Because we want the writing to be brilliant and perfect, it's seductive to get caught in an "editing loop" and never finish the story. It may be better each time you do it, but if you never finish the story, what's the point?

Learn to let the story be imperfect, finish it, and edit it later on. If you do this one chapter at a time, like I do, set yourself a publishing schedule and impose limits on how many times the plot can be revisited.

Don't worry about not having the best story ever. It will be as good as you can write in that moment. Years later when you've written your tenth novel, you can look back and see for yourself how much you've grown. There is value in having proof of progress.

That's why you should never edit and create at the same time. So you'll finish, pure and simple.


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I noticed you write a lot of Mass Effect fan fiction--why did you choose this game? Does it hold any particular fascinations or meanings to you?

I'm only an occasional gamer. I find most games to be an incredible time sink, and time is money to an entrepreneur. But I got the flu last year, and when I get sick I don't work. So I played through the Mass Effect series (all 3 games), which my uber-gamer husband had played. I loved the story but found that some of the characters were lacking in development. It sparked my creative drive and I was compelled to write out my thoughts.

That's all my reasoning. It could just have easily been another game from another fandom. It would have been scifi/horror/fantasy regardless, because that's my thing.


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You say that sci/fi and fantasy is "your thing"--are there any particular reasons you like this genre the most? Are there any books or movies that helped to spark your interest?

I'm raising the fifth generation of scifi fans in my family. It's something that's always been there, always inspired us. My parents were born and raised in South Florida during the 60s, too, when the first humans went to the moon. NASA and the space program always had a presence in our dinner conversations.


OH, and one more--your favorite sci/fi and/or fantasy author? How about on dA?

As for books and movies, my favorite writer by far is Heinlein. I've read just about everything he's ever written, including his speeches. Some of his social concepts are pretty odd but it never diminished my enjoyment of the stories - I can say the same for L. Ron Hubbard. For movies, Bladerunner is a classic, and I've read the book it was based on too - 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' by Philip K Dick.

For fantasy, Alan Dean Foster and Robert Jordan.

Scifi isn't all I read, of course. I like L.M. Montgomery and Jane Austen. I've been reading a lot of biographies and military nonfiction lately too, true spec ops stories, that kind of thing. But scifi is something I always come back to in some form. I imagine that will always be the case.

My favorite artists and writers on dA?

My beta reader, OpheliaBell is an accomplished writer and all-around terrific person. Rama-Kay and mothbanquet are both admins for my build-your-platform group and really enthusiastic about learning everything they can. Moth has just started his professional account under the name jjgrimshaw as his first big move to starting his fiction writing career - everyone should go and watch him!

I couldn't be prouder of what they've all done with the information the group creates. It's amazing to watch.

To throw a few visual artists into the mix, ShaunsArtHouse and patryk-garrett do some very eye-catching stuff.

All in all though, I most enjoy watching the process of art more than anything else. With literature we get to really see that, especially with the long stories. With visual art most of the time we only see the finished product - and the creativity happens during the process of creation. If I see a pretty picture and favorite it I don't get as close a connection as I do when I read a journal about their joys and sorrows, the anguish and hard work that goes into a piece, be it literature or visual or audio art. My personal enjoyment comes from watching the artistic process in the moment, so most of my watched deviants are writers who share their struggles and their triumphs instead of simply uploading and waiting for praise. From what I've learned about audience engagement, specifically online, this is the status quo.

Artists should stand up and take notice: patrons want to know you're human so that they can emotionally connect with your work. That's how you get people who are willing to purchase everything you create.


Is there anything else you want to say about your deviantART experience? You were suggested to me because of the things you do for the community--are there other things I didn't touch on?

I've met some truly stellar writers and artists here in a short period of time - far more than I have during any single period of my life to date. It speaks to the fantastic effort that dA has made in improving the site's social features. There are still a lot of screwy things with the platform, mostly with the literature side of things, but I can tell exactly what stage they are in the process. There are better things to come. I don't know any specifics and am not personally acquainted with any dA staff, but having worked with internet startups and web-based businesses for as long as I have I can see that they are updating the platform in a methodical way, making sure that each change doesn't break something else. It's a tricky process and I applaud them for the way they're handling it.


Would you like to share a few of your opinions of the deviantART community in general? Anything you like specifically, or love? How about dislikes?

I love the dA platform because of the social aspect. I started out on fanfiction dot net when I posted my first Mass Effect story. They have good traffic there but the conversation is mostly one way, so it's hard to really build a community around your work. I heard some writers were using dA and checked it out. It feels like a much more personal experience here, where you can really get to know the artists.

Sometimes a little too well, but that's another conversation. :)

The search function is a little wonky. If it's using the tags we enter when we submit, it would be nice to create tag feeds for the ones we are the most passionate about, like you can on Tumblr or Wordpress. Maybe that's in the works, though. There have been a lot of great improvements to the site since I joined last year, all making it easier to share and find art, and to streamline the interface. I do a lot of UI work myself so that kind of stuff makes me want to high-five the dA team.



Thank you, RipleyNox, for taking time out of your day to share your experiences and opinions with us!  While I don't know much about working professionally on websites, I appreciate the unique perspective your career brought to this interview, especially on the last question--it's interesting to remember that, while most of us grumble and groan about the changes dA consistently makes to the site, they work hard to make sure everything works properly, and that each change is beneficial to the site.  Thank you for reminding us of that!

Please go check out RipleyNox's gallery--there are so, so many wonderful deviations, I couldn't link to them all here!  The deviations on garnering more exposure for your work are especially helpful, so if you're looking for ways to bring more viewers in, you should check them out for sure!

RipleyNox talked about how her family's taste in literary genres shaped her own interests growing up.   I'm one of the only writers in my family, but my grandma, my mom and my dad are HUGE Stephen King buffs--and I am, too.  It seems the same is true of my love for drawing and artwork--my mom and my grandma are both hugely talented, and while I'm not nearly at the same level as they are, I do love being artistic.  So, a question for our readers--did your families have any effect on your interests or hobbies?  

Sound off with your questions and comments--but please, be respectful of RipleyNox and other deviants!    
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ShaunsArtHouse's avatar
Aww that's so nice of :iconabstract1106: to mention me in there :hug: