Sta.sh
There have always been a lot of writers on deviantART begging for more recognition. It's understandable that literature is given a lower priority: as I'm writing this, there are 3,280 "Writers" online, which compared to the 10,671 "Artists" is a relatively small community. So all of us writers whine about how we never get "the attention that we deserve." There are plenty of stamps declaring, "Writers are artists too!" and all that sort of thing. But we never really get anywhere.
Well let's get serious, people.
deviantART easily has the most impressive coding I've ever seen. And the latest updates of the message centre, notes and v7 were stunning. So much is possible; it's time to give writers the edge.
When deviantART's Portfolio feature was released, it stated:
deviantART, it is time for you to fulfill that promise.
The biggest problem with our cry for recognition is that we don't really know what we're asking for. In my opinion, the literature community is scattered and uncertain. Sure, we can say, "Create something special for us!" but if we don't know what we want, it certainly isn't going to happen.
So why don't we turn our focus to a concentrated effort in order to have our message heard?
Anybody that's attempted to critique a piece of writing on deviantART knows the frustration of continually scrolling up and back down. A piece of writing isn't a picture, and can't be critiqued like one. This sophisticated style of commenting would encourage deviants to give detailed, professional critiques.
One of the most stunning overhauls of the literature system: allow chapters to be linked together and annotations to be made on the text itself. Even if this idea as a whole is impossible, it has several concepts that would revolutionize the way deviants interact with literature deviations.
As was previously mentioned, deviantART promised "presentation formats" specialized for literature. Many writers assumed that meant a portfolio designed specifically for them, yet it's been almost a year since portfolios were released and nothing has been created. While portfolios might not serve a writer in the same way as for artists and photographers, many deviants desire a clean and professional place to showcase their written work, as you can see in this poll.
As deviants, we've seen the deviantART community flourish and better itself day after day. With the Portfolio, the Prints system and v7, visual arts were supported and promoted in totally new and fantastic ways.
As writers, we've been waiting for a similar revolution for a while. Written art inevitably suffers without such professional-looking and well thought-out features.
As you saw from the poll, writers would be excited to see a more user-defined experience on deviantART. Many of them would advocate the development of new ways to showcase and highlight their work much like features assisting deviantART's visual artists.
So here we are, to give them a voice. A voice that is not "official" but is here nonetheless. This is a call for deviantART's writers to stand up and take a part in change, instead of blindly demanding new features without taking any actual action. We are here to show that we care; we are here to illustrate to you our very own ideas about how to develop the writing community.
We are here to work together, as a community should, to see a much-needed feature be developed.
Will you be a part of it?
Well let's get serious, people.
deviantART easily has the most impressive coding I've ever seen. And the latest updates of the message centre, notes and v7 were stunning. So much is possible; it's time to give writers the edge.
When deviantART's Portfolio feature was released, it stated:
"Some people ask if Portfolio supports Literature, Film or Flash Animations. Unfortunately these formats are not yet supported, but we are working hard to make sure to support these media in the future with presentation formats designed specifically to them."
deviantART, it is time for you to fulfill that promise.
The biggest problem with our cry for recognition is that we don't really know what we're asking for. In my opinion, the literature community is scattered and uncertain. Sure, we can say, "Create something special for us!" but if we don't know what we want, it certainly isn't going to happen.
So why don't we turn our focus to a concentrated effort in order to have our message heard?
Hovering Comments
by `nycterent (DD given 2010-05-20)Anybody that's attempted to critique a piece of writing on deviantART knows the frustration of continually scrolling up and back down. A piece of writing isn't a picture, and can't be critiqued like one. This sophisticated style of commenting would encourage deviants to give detailed, professional critiques.
Chapters and Annotations
by `JesseLax (DD given 2008-11-02)One of the most stunning overhauls of the literature system: allow chapters to be linked together and annotations to be made on the text itself. Even if this idea as a whole is impossible, it has several concepts that would revolutionize the way deviants interact with literature deviations.
Literature Portfolios
by =HtBlack (DD given 2010-07-05)As was previously mentioned, deviantART promised "presentation formats" specialized for literature. Many writers assumed that meant a portfolio designed specifically for them, yet it's been almost a year since portfolios were released and nothing has been created. While portfolios might not serve a writer in the same way as for artists and photographers, many deviants desire a clean and professional place to showcase their written work, as you can see in this poll.
As deviants, we've seen the deviantART community flourish and better itself day after day. With the Portfolio, the Prints system and v7, visual arts were supported and promoted in totally new and fantastic ways.
As writers, we've been waiting for a similar revolution for a while. Written art inevitably suffers without such professional-looking and well thought-out features.
As you saw from the poll, writers would be excited to see a more user-defined experience on deviantART. Many of them would advocate the development of new ways to showcase and highlight their work much like features assisting deviantART's visual artists.
So here we are, to give them a voice. A voice that is not "official" but is here nonetheless. This is a call for deviantART's writers to stand up and take a part in change, instead of blindly demanding new features without taking any actual action. We are here to show that we care; we are here to illustrate to you our very own ideas about how to develop the writing community.
We are here to work together, as a community should, to see a much-needed feature be developed.
Will you be a part of it?
Could we still rate the chapters separately?
Say, I've got a whole story that's mostly tame, but one chapter that, due to violence or relations or other reason I'd really prefer to set with a Mature filter? Maybe not restricted to only people over 18 (I'm not that graphic, and the restrictive setting requires you to log in; I like keeping it open to non-deviants, after all), just that quick "do you really want to see it" warning.
I don't want to change the rating on the whole story...just that one chapter.
Because I'll admit right now, that "separate rating for each chapter" is the one reason I like posting my work over here better than FanFiction.net/Fictionpress. But there's an awful lot more work involved in posting it here, and keeping the chapters linked the old-fashioned way.
The Hovering and the Annotations sound cool, but I won't know until we get them if I'd get much use out of them.
And Portfolio?
So I guess what I'm trying to say is hell yes I'm all for this so now what happens????