Good afternoon everyone, my name is Karen Andrews and welcome to our session ‘The Revolution will be Downloaded’. As we begin, we’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where we sit today, the tribes of the Kulin Nation.
Many of us here will know that recently Ashton Kutcher was in a great race with CNN to see who would be the first to reach the magic one millionth follower mark on Twitter. Ashton won, and if you were watching his live Ustream victory speech – as I was, I admit – you would’ve heard him say that his accomplishment was proof, a testament, to the “democratization of the media.” I can’t help but feel that this is quite an easy statement for a celebrity to make, to have used the powers of advantage at his disposal for his own gains, but it did get me to wondering if he has a point; if somehow my cynicism was getting in the way of a proper analysis. I thought about how I personally feel about social media, the Internet, our online lives and specifically what kind of role it could and should play in our lives as writers.
I thought of a few phrases which best summed up my position and one I came up with was that the new medias present us with “Wider Avenues of Opportunity”.
After all, writers have become immediate success stories. In 2000, Cecilia Dart-Thornton published her work online and it got published: this was back when I remember the general advice was not to publish a work still in progress if you wanted a hope in it being picked up. Fast forward a few years and you will find writers such as Cory Doctorow releasing their books for free download under creative common licences. Move forward again to examples of bloggers like Diablo Cody, of blogs with spin-off books, bloggers being offered book deals, and even television shows getting optioned.
So, coming back to us where do we start? If we decide to dabble into creating an online presence, how do we do it? How are others doing it? How do we strike a balance between the way we present ourselves professionally as opposed to personally. Do we even have to draw that line? What is there to gain?
Lastly, is creating our words and art for the Internet just a wonderful distraction or a truly rewarding experience befitting the dynamic medium it is?
I’m pretty certain our panelists here today will argue the case for the latter. And at the end in question time I’m sure we will see how some of you feel as well.
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One hour before our session was due to begin, I was sobbing in the coffee room; partly from nerves and partly because I was so tired, I was quite emotional, too. I had a sudden terror that I hadn’t prepared enough (or worse, incorrectly). However the feedback I got back personally from the session, and a few of the brief online reviews I’ve seen as well, was that it was interesting and informative. Angela will be posting up her talk this week, so that’s well worth a look.
I went and sat in on several panels myself, and they were all very good. I particularly liked the Festival opening with it’s Ambassador’s each getting up to deliver their “Seven Enviable Lines” (here is Rachel’s). Kathryn Heyman said something at the end which really moved me: she said when you’re writing, not to be afraid to let go, be bold, be daring, and even (yes) be silly or crap at times if it means getting better and getting the most out of your writing. She also said that re-wording was not re-writing: how students of hers sometimes come back and say “I’ve re-written my manuscript!” and all she sees are a few lines changes.
Boy – how I’ve been guilty of that in the past.
Which is why I’m struggling so much with this novel re-write of mine. I’m in a jam; don’t know where to turn next, what experiments to take, if they’re going to be worth it, or make it worse. It’s bewildering.
But! I shall persevere.
Tomorrow – my re-cap of The Page Parlour at Federation Square.
