On June 6, 2009, the following interview was conducted in the #LITplease chatroom. The interviewer was Jessica (`ATrue) and the interviewee was Jes (`poprocksandcharlotte). Please make a mental note of the similarity in their names, so that you don't get confused while reading. All other names that appear are audience members.

Ok, so here's how the Q&A works: the interviewer asks the interviewee some questions, and the interviewee answers. The audience meanwhile can "raise their hand" (type a ^) to indicate that they wish to ask a question. Then, the interviewer will let them know when it's their turn to ask their question. At the end of most Q&A's, the interviewee is asked to provide the room with a prompt topic to inspire the audience to write something fabulous. Sound simple? Well, the Q&A's do take place in the #LITplease chat room, so it can sometimes get a little crazy; you never know what the audience members will say--or the interviewer for that matter!

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Jessica: ok, Jes, you ready?

Jes: Not really, but fire away

Jessica: Haha, well, I'll start with an easy question, just to ease in. Are you listening to any music right now?

Jes: None at all, the hum of the refrigerator in the background, reminding me I need to get it checked out.

Jessica: Do you prefer silence or music when you write?

Jes: Definitely, depending on what I'm writing though.

Jes: Genre, topic, tone etc

Jessica: That makes sense. Are you writing a lot these days?

Jes: In terms of personal use, no. I'm writing a lot in terms of University based work though, which does occasionally cross over into my private projects.

Jessica: I ask this, of course, because you recently deleted your entire gallery. For those who didn't read your journal about it, can you explain why you did that?

Jes: Sure. There were a few reasons I did this.

Jes: Firstly I needed to pull back a bit from dA and assess why I was here, what I wanted from this experience and what I had to offer.

Jes: Which is completely natural I suppose, once you start moving on a little.

Jessica:

smoking-mirrors ^

Jes: Secondly, I just wanted to start with a clean slate. A lot of the submissions were getting older and not so representative of my evolving style, I guess. So I wanted to build a new gallery from scratch

Jes: Lastly, because I can. And I did.

Jessica: Ok, smoking-mirrors, go ahead with your question
<smoking-mirrors>Once you graduate from dA are there plans for where you want to take your writing?

Jes: I don't know if I'll ever *entirely* graduate from dA, but I think I'm getting to that point. I ideally want to start submitting to magazines more and work on my manuscript which has been boiling around in my head, as you know I definitely have big plans, I just need to get the push to bite the bullet and believe.

Jessica: does that answer your question, smoking-mirrors?

smoking-mirrors: It answers very well.

Jes:

Jessica: have you submitted your work for publication yet and have you had much success?

conorschild: ^

Jes: I've submitted to a couple places, I've had two knock backs based on the fact it wasn't according to theme and another rather confusing reason that I'll no doubt decode. I recently got published in The Clearfield Review, an online magazine produced by ^fllnthblnk and `Amberlouie

Jes: So, one out of three.

Jessica: Wow, that's great. What would you say is the hardest part of the publication process?

Jes: Producing something that you think will meet the publications tastes. Getting up the courage to buckle down and convince yourself you can do this. When it's been submitted...I hate the waiting.

Jes: I don't mind the knock backs. Just waiting for the knock backs.

Jessica: So, the "knock backs" don't cause you to knock a few back, then?

Jes: Hahaha

Jes: No. Not usually.

Jessica: Go ahead conorschild

Amberlouie: ^

conorschild: You're being asked to do this interview as part of a look on 'rosetry,' what you say defines prosetry, and how did you make the move to it?

Jessica: conorschild: lol, we're not all about "prosetry."

Jes: I'll answer anyway

conorschild: I thought that's what this weekend was for

Jessica: conorschild: nope, it for ~LITplease, which is poetry and prose. We just have a prosetry contest right now.

Jes: Prosetry is defined technically as a hybrid genre that borrows from both prose and poetry, formatted according to prose standards (paragraphing, sentence structure etc) and incorporating poetic devices (imagery, sonics, meter, alliteration etc). Although, unlike prose, it can appear to be fragmented, not specifically telling the narrative in itself, but a narrative about experience, feeling and sensory perceptions. Of course, it depends on what definition you subscribe to.

Jes: My move to it was simply spurred by my Experimental Writing unit this semester that encouraged me to play around with it.

Jessica: conorschild: satisfied with that response?

conorschild: yeah

Jessica: awesome. That was a very thorough answer.

Jessica: Ok, so lets talk about =Trashrock, Jes

Jes: Oh goody

Jessica: What inspired you to start this publication?

Jes: The club or the publication?

Jessica: Both

Jes: The club kind of sat around for a while being my little shell project, I had no idea what to do with it. I did a bit of a retrospective and thought about critique, the ways in which its delivered on dA, the promises other clubs make etc

Jes: And decided that I'd make a club dedicated to the art of critique. I thought it would be particularly fantastic if I could find a bunch of people to serve critiques out like the ones I have grown accustomed to from Amberlouie, to the general dA public.

Jes: People who genuinely wanted straight forward, rib cracking critique.

Jes: Considering how many people say, THERE'S NO CRIT ON DALIT

Jes: So that's what motivated me to start TR

Jessica: Now, for the majority of literature publications, the goal is the publish complete, polished, professional work. But, by publishing critiques and the pieces that accompany them, you end up publishing less than polished pieces, is that right?

Amberlouie: ^

Jes: TR publishes the process. It's about the process the writers and the critics go through, more so than the end product. Because there's a lot of publications out there that cater to that audience, and I wanted to celebrate my side of things and the people who work along side me, as well as development.

Jessica: amberlouie?.

Amberlouie: Which piece of literature (or not) had the largest impact on you, and if you were to write something, would you want it to impact another person's mindset or life, and how?

Jes: From the urban realism stance, I think Luke Davies had the biggest impact of me in terms of creative inspiration and story tone. It's just one of those fantastic stories that portray that dark side of Sydney in such a way that it IS gritty and it IS real, the characters are quite real and the writing is dynamic. It's my inspirational cornerstone. If I were to write a manuscript, I would want my audience to actually care about the characters within this little world I've created and start thinking about the social issues present in our society. I think that ultimately, I would want to make people question things and explore the grey areas of life and morality etc.

Jes: I hope that makes sense.

Amberlouie: Good, intelligent answer

Jes: Good question

cybergranny ^

Jessica: Ok, so, to continue where I was going before, I wanted to ask if =Trashrock encourages those who submit for critique to edit their piece quickly so that the edited version can be published as well

Jessica: or does only the original unedited version get printed?

Jessica: since you were talking about "the process"

Jes: A link to the original version gets printed. I was heading in the direction of the before, critique, after, format prior to going away ---I think it would definitely reflect the process on the scale I wanted to build slowly, once we got a rhythm up.

Jessica: so it hasn't happened yet, but you want it to, am I understanding that correctly?

Jes: Indeed you are

Jes: You slowly build these things into working prototypes

Jessica: ok, cybergranny, go ahead

cybergranny: Are you inspired by visual art for your personal writings and if so do you plan some collab/projects with visual artists?

Jes: Good question.

Jes: I haven't drawn any direct inspiration as yet from visual art, but

Jes: I do intend to perhaps do a collab in the near future

Jes: When I'm putting PDFs together for Uni

Jes: I often incorporate pictures into the presentation

Jessica: cybergranny: that a good enough answer for you?

cybergranny: yes thanks

Jes: as it gives a feeling of authenticity

cybergranny: that's why I asked ^^

Jes: cybergranny: You're my favourite VA miss.

cybergranny

Jessica: ok, so let me move on to your personal commitment to providing critique. How is this going so far?

Jes: Well, it's going slowly. I'm doing finals right now for University, so I have three half finished critiques bopping around my hard drive.

Jes: Come holidays, I'll raise a little hell though.

Jessica: Do you use the new critiquing system or just leave regular comments when you do?

Jes: I've used it once. I could go either way. It depends on what I feel at the time and what level my annoyance is at with the star rating.

Jessica: so, you don't like the star rating system?

Jessica: Does it make you feel like a food or hotel service critic?

Jessica:

Jes: Not really. I understand its uses on the Visual system and I appreciate that much of dA is visually based. But no, I don't like it and yes, it makes me feel like I'm back in 3rd year Uni doing food writing and trying to appraise something so complex as words and structures on a plane that is comparably simplistic.

Jessica: So, you think that the written word is too complicated for the star system, but visual art is not?

Jes: Well, no. I think if the star system was tailored to deal with the written word opposed to VA, it would be fine. But the crit system is very much VA based. And so it caters better to the VA system.

Jessica: I see. So, when you leave a critique, what are your main concerns? What makes a critique good?

Jes: Time, patience and commitment to the critique make it good. My main concerns depend on the piece in front of me. I judge the experience of the writer by their gallery. If it's a beginner, we'll cover the basics, with some extra stuff to give them an edge. The purpose of a hook, the construction of an image - complex and simple - sentence construction, dialogue etc. Grammar often comes last for me, as grammar and punctuation are often the easiest things to change in a piece of prose. If the basics mechanics aren't working, you need to address that first, and talk about grammar as you move through the piece.

tiraldan: ^

Jessica: A lot of people would say, "Art is subjective, so how can you say in a critique that this or that could be better." These people are the ones who only point out the positives. What do you have to say to these people?

Jes: I say you can have your opinion, you have a right to it and you can probably justify it by whatever bias you like. But, if you seek improvement or the refinement of material, your craft and yourself as an artist, lose the rose coloured glasses.

Jes: I don't deny that art is subjective.

Jes: But there are rules that govern prose. You can break those rules, but you have to demonstrate you know what rules you are breaking.

Jessica: wow, that is very well said!

Jessica: very quotable quote

Jes:

Jessica: Would you consider yourself more of a prosist or a poet? (Since you don't have any deviations, it's a bit hard to judge!)

Jes: I am very much a prosist!

Jessica: thought so

Jes: Although I wasn't always so

Jes: As ~TheKingofFall can tell you.

Jes: and smoking-mirrors

Jessica: Now, your recent journal refers to your "high socio-political profile." What does this mean to you?

Jes: Ah, that was quite tongue in cheek of me, actually.

Jes: It refers I suppose, to the number of disagreements I can get into. And will get into, in the future.

Jessica: What is your take on dArama, which, ironically, makes an issue of itself?

Jes: Hahaha

Jes: Oh dear

Jes: I don't know if you should be asking me this question, but okay. Llama drama is probably one of those things that will never go away. It's the cyber incarnation of a high school mentality of snark fights, bitch fests, grudge matches and pissing contests to see who's ego is bigger than who's, who has more influence and who can make the biggest noise possible. You can't help getting caught up in it at times, especially if you are active in the community, chat or otherwise.

Jessica: And you are quite active. Besides owning =Trashrock, you are quite present in the forums and chats, is that right?

Jes: Occasionally

Jes: When there is time.

Jessica: poprocksandcharlotte: you recently commented that more support is needed in these areas of the lit community, particularly the lit forum. What do you feel makes the lit forum so important?

Jes: Well, the Lit Forum actually represents a structured environment where Lit is the central issue without having to deal with the cliques in the Lit chats or the politics of it. It's good, old fashion internet based, transactional communication that is underplayed and deserves more attention. There are some really interesting discussions and debates operating right now, so yeah, it's worthy.

Jessica: what kind of discussions are there?

Jes: Anything from character profile constructions, discussions about childhood literature, the evolution of modernist writing, poetic device discussions, clichés and such. You can actually learn something on these forums.

Jes: Which is nice.

Jessica: Definitely, it sounds like. I noted you about this interview a couple weeks back and, when I asked you about any areas of particular interest, you mentioned being passionate about Young Adult Fiction. Can you tell me about that?

Jes: I love YA. It's my niche. I will elaborate, just a sec.

Jes: When I say YA, I do not mean the 13- 17 demographic. I mean YA as in, young adult, 18-25. It allows me to stretch out into urban realism, while keeping my snappy, fast paced story lines and dialogue.

Jes: There's a lot you can explore and there is room for cross genre execution, several times over, particularly when writing a drama based manuscript.

Jessica: What makes a good story for you?

Jes: It really depends on the genre. I like good dialogue, character interaction, there has to be pacing, execution. It they are subscribing to formula, it has to be original and not incredibly evident. I like engagement, I like actually disliking or liking situations, characters etc intensely.

Jes: I have to connect with it.

Jes: Even if I hate everybody in the book, I have to love the writing.

Jessica: By "disliking or liking situations, character" essentially you mean it has to draw out an emotional reaction, even if it's anger or hatred, etc?

Jes: Well, it has to appeal to me on some level. So yes, there has to be some kind of reaction, some kind of identification or curiosity. I adore Orwell for the reason he can hook you in and drag you into the story, make you think, react, feel. Question, there has to be intelligence and some humanity.

Jes: I have to believe that these people can exist, in terms of characters.

Jessica: Earlier, you mentioned that they need to know what rules they're breaking, which essential refers to concept, right? Their vision of the piece and how the executed it?

Jes: Well yes. It they're writing in formula, they need to understand the formula to properly subvert it. I love subversion, when it's done well and within the means of the writer. If you don't understand the mechanics of the genre and claim to know exactly what you're doing, I don't know who you're trying to kid. There needs to be some kind of foresight and depth to the execution, whether that refers to technical knowledge or not. It's all very well and good to tear up the rule book, but you can't very well tear up a rule book you've never read.

Jes: You could try, but you end up scuttling your development and your piece.

Jes: And this is something I quite often rave about, so forgive me for the passionate tangents.

Jessica: Now, to play devil's advocate, when you read and/or critique a piece, you're looking for intelligence/good concept (VISION), an emotional/personal connection (IMPACT), originality (...ORIGINALITY), execution, and you do look at grammar, even if lastly (TECHNIQUE). That sounds like the 4-star system to me.

Jes: Well, you can manipulate those terms to suit categorically any art form you like, but when it comes down to it, devils advocate or not, if you're giving advice on concept, originality, execution and technique; chances are, they aren't going to make that appropriation and all they will see are the stars and ignore the words, due to the implicit symbolism in the star system, dating back to grade school. You'd have to sit down with a fair percentage and explain your appropriations anyway, so, what's the point?

Jessica: Well said.

Jessica: The only piece in your gallery right now is called Nuba, and it fits the genre of prosetry very well. You said this was for an experimental writing class?

Jes: Yes, this was one of my pieces for Experimental Writing.

Jessica: Now, you put this in Fiction> Perspectives. Do you think this is where prosetry belongs? Should dA create a prosetry category, or is prosetry first and foremost prose due to its form?

Jes: Well I think that's where my submission belongs because it is primarily a prose hybrid from an operative first person perspective. I think perhaps it would depend on the piece being submitted, and while ideally I would love for it to have its own gallery, that it would be probably the most applicable across the board. Generally because within prosetry, people generally go for that subjective voice due to the attraction. It allows for fragmentation and personalisation.

Jessica: You're a judge for the Prosetry, Please contest, and we're requiring entrants to put their pieces in the Fiction> Perspectives gallery to avoid miscats. Is this a good thing you think or are miscats not something anybody should be concerned about?

Jes: I think miscats are very important.

vgaer: ^

Jessica: that was your whole answer right?

Jes: If people continue to submit their stuff under the wrong category and go on to say, well, that's just my style or that's how I execute this genre, it's further proof people don't know what the hell they are doing.

Jes: People should educate themselves on the categories available to them.

Jes: Not only would it raise awareness for different genres

Jes: It would avoid confusion

Jes: Underlying message: Jes hates miscats.

Jessica: vgaer: go ahead with your question

vgaer: This is pretty standard/boring, but where'd the username come from?

Jes: Why?

Jessica: now who's asking the questions here?

Jes: Me

Jes: lol

Jes: Okay

vgaer haha, good enough, that'd be my response if someone asked about mine

Jes: My name comes from candy and a name that sounded phonetically attractive, that also stems back to the fact that I used to back the Charlotte NBA team before I was old enough to know better.

vgaer: Ohhh. Thankies!

Jessica: Ok, let's talk a little bit about =PoetryPlease and *ProsePlease. We were discussing this a bit before the interview started but most people were not there. You were part of these groups long before even me, and before the first rift started between them. We don't need all the details, but can you give us the gist of essentially why it happened and what it means to you to see them come back together?

Jessica: poprocksandcharlotte: just the fundamental problem, the root of the issue

Jes: It came down essentially to politics.

Jes: Politics, lack of time and ego.

Jes: That's the root of the issue.

Jes: ATrue: I worked mostly within Poem of the Week.

Jes: As a POETRY critic

Jessica: So, how does it feel to see them come back together?

Jes: Well, if this unification of both prose and poetry works on a level that it should, and you can create a room that is constructive and conducive to the writer and the critic; I think it's flipping awesome.

Jessica: Ok, we're going to start wrapping this up. Any lingering questions out there?

Jes: >.>

Jes: <.<

Jes:

Jessica: haha

Jessica: one more question though

Jes: okay

Jessica: What prompt topic did you prepare for us?

Jes: That would depend on the value consensus of the room.

Jessica: poprocksandcharlotte: you define it for right now

Jes: What do we want people, poetry or prose?

tiraldan: Prose, here...

tiraldan: Any other votes? Poetry or prose prompt?

vgaer: Poetry!

Jessica: I'm fine with anything

Jessica: even a critiquing prompt

Jes: Ooo

Jes: Good idea.

Jes: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Aliens. Please direct your attention to the critique category on your dA tool bars. Pick a Literature piece, study it, love it, hate it, I don't care. Write me a bone busting critique. Cover every aspect you can think of. Post it. Link it, and then discuss what YOU think YOU could have done better.

Jes: If you half arse it, I will eat your soul.