To be [social] or not to be [social]

I originally wrote this article for my Apex Magazine slot this month, but in the long run I decided to go a different way with it. I thought this one ended up a little more about creators than about the things the Apex might need, so I wrote a different one.

That said, I think this one says some good things as well, so I’m posting here on my own site for you fine folks to check out.

Also, just for the record, Apex is a wonderful publisher, and please go check out their books and other publications. Check them out at www.apexbookcompany.com.

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I just spent two hours on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter arguing that using pens for ink art is the best approach.

Right before that, I spent two hours arguing that using a paint brush for ink art is the best approach.

That’s four hours of talking online. I was able to talk to new people, make good points about art and how important techniques are, and possibly gain a new follower. My expertise might have been evident, and I might have impressed any number of fans with my knowledge.

In that four hours, I also could have completed at least one small ink work, or one digital art piece, or even made pretty good headway on an acrylic painting. I could have written at least one short story, or maybe edited one of the several here on my computer.

To put it simply, I put my productivity aside, I put my dream of doing art aside (and getting paid for it), simply to have my say.

But that’s not exactly why creators are on the internet. Speaking from my perspective, I’ve had large gaps in my career due to real life pushing its way in, and being on the internet and being social has helped to keep me in the art world when I wasn’t able to work on anything. I stay on the web, on social networks, because to this day it still keeps interest in my work without me adding new work.

It certainly can be a marketing thing, we want to cultivate new fans, get new gigs, and be seen as a person that others want to be involved with. Really, it’s a very important marketing idea, one that can really lead into many other projects. It’s very easy to get noticed and to get talked about, and that can lead to someone requesting your work. More work, greater exposure, and hopefully living the dream of doing only art are the goals.

That’s not where the problem lies though. Once we’re online, it’s also very easy to get dragged into a conversation or to go off on a tangent. Especially since art can be a very lonely job, often you’re home alone and the internet is your only companion.

So, you put down the paintbrush for your morning break, open up Twitter, and see a discussion about problems with the industry. You add your own message on there, and wait for the next one to reply to. Suddenly, it’s 5 o’clock, and your family is starting to ask where their dinner is, since you’re an unemployed stay-at-home artist that should have dinner on the table.

You’ve just spent an entire day in front of your dream with nothing to show for it.

As someone who’s unemployed, struggling with the art career and family time, and not generally finding a way to do new works, that stings a lot. That can easily lead to depression, since you’re not getting anywhere in life, and then you start sulking and wasting even more time. The trick though is that, creators need the promotion that being regularly on a social networking gives, you can’t just abandon it either. Fans are fickle, and, especially if you’ve been a vocal person in the past, suddenly not being online can lose you the fan base you’ve fought so hard to get.

Creators need to find balance, with everything that they do, and social networking is no different. Some creators can set times during the day to do certain things, others are more organic, and stop when they feel it’s time to stop.

Creators just need to realize that when they stop, they need to limit their involvement during their work hours to just what needs to be said, and not be drawn into big discussions or to fly off to some cool website to spend even more time away from art.

As much as I love talking with creators online, I’d much rather see new works from them. New works that might inspire me to do better at my own work.