How To Catch an Artist (A Writer's guide, by an Artist) (updated ACBB version)
Greetings Fellow Camlads!!
I've been meaning to update this post for the ACBB for over a year now, and finally I'm going to do it!
May I present:
An Artist Telling Writers How to Catch an Artist.
HOW TO CATCH
***DISCLAIMER***
I am just one artist, and a lot of what follows is personal opinion, but I've asked a few other artists and have gotten nods of approval in the general direction. Grains of salt, your milage may vary, professional driver on a closed course, suggested serving, enlarged to show texture … etc etc….
Maybe this post is doing some good, because I'm finding it hard to find examples of bad summaries in ACBB posts! So, I'll keep the original post's actual Paperlegend examples used in match-up posts. They are anon, and I have no idea who the writers were. I don't mean to cause any offence to the writers by their inclusion.
This is what last year's summary form looked like:
Title:
Rating:
Current Word Count:
Estimated Final Word Count:
Pairing(s) or Gen:
Warnings:
Traditional Art/Graphic Art/Video/Fanmix:
Art specifics: (Here you may list any specifics of the art that you wish or wish not to receive.)
Summary for Artists:
BREAK IT DOWN!
Lets look at the last bit of this….
Warnings: Yup, artists look at warnings. There can be hints as to what might happen in the story hidden up the warnings. I once tried to nab a summary that warned for injured bird!Merlin….
Brief summary: Know your audience. You are trying to pitch your story to an artist, plain and simple. Being vague and mysterious works great on enticing readers, but artists need visuals. Rhetorical questions in the summary are probably not the best idea either... Will their love last or will dinner end up in the toilet? More importantly, is happiness really a fish you can slap someone with? And can Arthur save the day?
REAL LIFE EXAMPLES!!!!!
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Warnings: character illness (if what seems to be terminal illness, hypothermia, or a human in animal form being injured are triggery for you, then you probably want to steer clear of this one. No-one actually dies, though, and injuries are fixed and I'm trying to make sure characters aren't too woobie...there's definitely a happy M/Gwa ending in the cards.)
Summary: Canon era. Merlin is on a difficult and dangerous solo quest to get ingredients for a potion because Arthur is dying and, well, Arthur didn’t take the whole “guess what, I’m a sorcerer” thing as well as he could have. Gwaine is sent to check on him when he strays out of contact for too long, and Gwaine takes one look at Merlin and decides to stay on with him on his quest. None of them know, however, that the Old Religion had more purpose in sending Merlin to fetch ingredients than simply a dangerous task; Merlin and his champion must visit the four kingdoms of the elements (including meeting Gwaine’s destiny at the Green Chapel) and return to the mortal realm before Arthur loses his kingdom - and his life. Heavy Merlin/Gwaine romance, strong Merlin/Arthur friendship (Gwaine misinterprets this, but it’s not intended to be more than friendship), lots of questing and some angst in there too! Note in the interest of not misleading you: because we’re out on the road with Merlin and Gwaine for most of the fic, while there’s loads of adventures with elves, mermaids, dragons, the questing beast, bird!merlin, the Green Knight, all that - there’s very little Arthur in the fic itself. Merlin is also very certain that the man he loves is Gwaine; from Merlin's POV, there's no contest -- he loves his king, but he adores Gwaine. There’s lots of Merlin, and it’s Gwaine POV in third person. And lots of adventure. Come art with me!
In my opinon, this is a great summary. It tells the following things:
1) canon era, outdoors adventure
2) I have a good idea of who I'll be expected to draw
3) potential to draw elves, mermaids, dragons, questing beast, green knight, bird!Merlin, elements (this immediately gives 4 ideas for pieces; water, air, earth, fire), a hypothermia scene, and a possible bird!Merlin being injured scene.
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Warnings: Character death,violence, betrayal, so much fluff you'll want to puke
Brief summary: Arthur thought that he knew everything about Camelot and that he had a pretty good idea of how his life would go in the future. But his 18th birthday brought him a little surprise in the form of an outdated tradition of gifting humans and what followed was certainly not what he'd anticipated.
This is an example of a not-so-good summary. It doesn't tell an artist much.
1) I don't know if it's canon or modern or what?
2) There's Arthur… but I dont know who else is a prominent character
3) potential to draw possibly a human slave. Who it is, I don't know.
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Summary: When Merlin Emrys meets developer-turned-bass player Arthur Pendragon at his cousin Gawain's family pub, he decides pretty quickly that he needs to be kept at arms length. Merlin discovers that sometimes, it’s those you want to stay away from who are the people that you find you need like oxygen, and your peers, the people should be able to rely on for understanding, are the ones who will try to take you down. Sometimes, a storm will drown you before it devours everyone else. Other times, you’ll be the last one to let go.
This is a great example of a summary that's trying to catch readers, and not artists. The first sentence tells me that there is a chance I could draw Arthur playing a bass in a pub, but unless the writer wants me to literally draw someone drowning in a storm, the rest of the summary is a lot of metaphoric mumbo-jumbo about angst.
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Summary: In a drunken moment, Arthur persuades Merlin to jump the Beltane fire with him. At first, everything seems normal, but gradually, Arthur gets clumsier and Merlin gets better with a sword until one day, Arthur uses magic. Can they work out what's going on and how to fix it before they are discovered?
This summary proves that you don't need to write an epic length summary to provide good visual ideas.
1) Canon era
2) I have a pretty good idea what charcters to draw
3) Potential to draw jumping the fire, clumsy!Arthur, BAMF!Merlin, and Arthur using magic.
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The following are examples of sometimes less is less.
Summary: Arthur and Merlin have been as good as brothers for years and friends for even longer, but now Arthur´s starting to have strange new thoughts about his best friend. Is moving in together after uni as good a plan as any, or will their friendship go up in flames along with Merlin´s cooking?
What I see: Modern AU, and a possible kitchen fire?
Summary: Merlin is a corporate spy. When his latest assignment involves his old neighbor and mentor, Gaius, things get a lot more complicated then either of them bargained for.
What I see: Modern AU, might get to draw a suit.
Summary: In which in a moment of panic, Merlin reveals his magic and Arthur catches him with his dagger. A life for a life, Kilgarrah sacrifices himself to save Merlin and his destiny. Despite being brethren of sorts, they are two different species and their mixing of magic forces Merlin to begin to transform.
What I see: Canon AU, magic reveal(cool), Arthur is either stabbing Merlin(cool) or catching him with a dagger (maybe Merlin isn't allowed weapons?), Kilgarrah sacrifices himself (cool), and Merlin transforms into…… …… …. WHAT?!?! As an artist I want to know it I'm drawing a half-dog, or a half toad, or a half dragon, or maybe he transforms into a COMPLETE dragon? or a newt? or .. I DONT KNOW!!
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Brief summary: Alternate season four. Morgana's departed with her dying sister. Her magic is uncontrollable and she's slowly starving, slipping in and out of consciousness and finding herself in a strange new land. Uther has retreated into his own mind and no one can wake him. Merlin's struggling with his secrets and his guilt. Gwen makes weapons in the forge and is generally awesome. Meanwhile, it's been raining since the day Morgana disappeared, and the country is slowly disappearing beneath the water. Mordred is saved by the knights and becomes a reluctant ward of the increasingly crowded and hungry Citadel. With Ealdor probably destroyed, and no sign of the unnatural weather coming to an end, Merlin puts all his efforts into trying to identify the culprit and stop them: there's really no chance Merlin will be able to continue to keep the magic secret, especially now anyone with magic is having their life force slowly drained from them and the spell to stop the bad guys involves a really conspicuous fireball. Also, Leon is sure Gaius is a wizard and Gwaine offers vulgar yet helpful advice.
Visuals include: lots of rain; rafting; Arthur and Merlin sharing a hammock; Merlin exercising the dogs inside the castle (and being subsequently glomped by them); Morgana discovering Uther in a desert; a massive fireball in the sky; Sir Leon trying to do detective work.
This writer actually offers a section of "Visuals" which is a fantastic move.
Okay, moving on to the rest of the form....
Full current word count and Estimated final word count: Some artists will be watching this section like a hawk in regards to odds a writer might drop out. I recall my first time in a big bang, my writer had less than 5k. Needless to say, they dropped out.
Traditional Art/Graphic Art/Video/Fanmix/Podfic (Please specify which of these medium/media of art that you wish to receive: This link is to a page describing differnt fanart mediums. PLEASE read this. It is MEGA IMPORTANT. Understand that there are differences in Graphic Art, Digital Collages, and Manips
Art specifics (Here you may list any specifics of the art that you wish or wish not to receive. If you love all art, please say so!: Here, it can get a little confusing with what the mods wrote. I interpret this as "list any specifics for the medium you have chosen." So if you chose "Drawing/Painting", here you would say if you prefer not to have charcoal art or chibi style. Or if you chose "Fanmix", here you can say that you prefer not to have Nickleback songs included. If you choose "Graphic Art" here you can say if you prefer blended body parts rather than digital collages. If you chose yes to everything and have no specific art needs or ideas, you can say that too!
Also, use this area to say what you have in mind for art. (Like the "visuals" from that one anon's summary)
EXAMPLES FROM PAST SUMMARIES:
Art specifics: The story's setting is a futuristic version of London and is heavily detailed. There are some iconic buildings and some new structures that play a prominent roll in the story. I would love to see them featured in some of the art. It would also be great if the art would be interested in designing a mock book cover to go along with the story.
Art specifics: I would absolutely LOVE for someone to make newspaper headings, as I use fake newspaper articles to introduce each chapter. But to be honest, anything would be amazing!
WARNING! Be mindful of your wording. Saying "I'm fine with basically any art except for manips." "No anime, please" "I prefer no head-pasting, unless it's really well done" can be very negative and have a "good artists only" connotation attached. Also, saying "No manips" doesn't just mean no to body blending, but ALL graphic art, including digital collages, faux newspapers/mags, and digital maps - which are all photo manipulations. (again, please read this article about the intricacies of fanart mediums)
Something new I'd like to add: Don't discount a medium too quickly. I've seen a few summaries that say, "No fanmixes", when there's some pretty clever mixers out there. Also, artists are terribly clever. You might think it's impossible for a certain medium to fit your fic, but you'd be surprised, especially vids. Think of all the AU gifsets on tumblr - heck, is that even a new medium? Cuz those are awesome!
Well, I hoped that helped. If you have anything to add, let me know in the comments!