Tuesday 2 June 2015

Rosetta Phoning Part 2


Factional: Do you guys think of that time, doing your first webcomics, as an apprenticeship? Are you applying any particular  lessons you learnt to the production of  Rosetta  Phone?

Mary: I'm not sure what you mean by apprenticeship? 

Apprenticeship seems more like a time where you are mentored, and our previous experiences with webcomics were just more... I don't know. We put our all into our past works, I don't see them as practice runs or experiments. Just us wanting to tell good/enjoyable stories. We definitely learnt things by those experiences, my number one lesson being to plan the whole story out before starting production. Which we have done! I would like to get the majority of it written before we get too far through Rosetta Phone, but we have planned it out pretty thoroughly, so we won't run into some of the problems Nothing Fits did... which was not knowing how it was going to end!

Also having experience with Kickstarter campaigns, I know that next time it is vital to have a good video. And I would probably plan out expenses more thoroughly next time, I did have a dilemma with the change in postage prices last time and having plans and back up plans in place for stuff like that is something I will definitely have next time. 

Nothing Fits
There are some things I can't cross over from Nothing Fits, and some times Bethany can't cross over from her previous works - as she hasn't worked with someone like this before and working with her is very different than working with Alex McCrone. Alex took more of a backseat, as she doesn't have much of an online presence, whereas Bethany does. I'm feeling like I'm taking more of a backseat promotion wise. I've released more control, as Rosetta Phone is more equally mine and Bethany's, while Nothing Fits was really more mine. 

Fac: I guess by apprenticeship I mean a period of learning and development but I see where you're coming from in terms of mentorship being part of that process. Though from both what you and Bethany have said perhaps your peers acted in that capacity to some extent.

Moving on, Bethany can you remember what you liked about Nothing Fits?

Bethany: I really liked both the art and the fun, quirky twisted story book nature of it, I liked it because it reminded me a lot of Roald Dahl  and Terry Pratchett. It was just really fun with these bright children's book-esque  illustrations and then a dark underbelly of murder and chaos.

Fac: That 'quirky twisted storybook' nature of Nothing Fits, I saw that too. I can also see it in Tempus by Bethany. I wondered if you were influenced by writers like Diana Wynne Jones or Margaret Mahy or Joan Aiken? You guys seems to have the same kind of energy and sense of play that I associate with them. 

Character sheet from Tempus
Bethany: God, Tempus, that's a blast from the past! I wrote and drew that while I was still at school!

Well I said it before, that Mary's storytelling reminded me a lot of the late Terry Pratchett, who is among my favourite authors and story tellers, so I was immediately drawn to it for that reason. I could see his hand and influence in a lot of her stuff, and you can see it in Tempus and my other projects as well. It later turned out Mary was also a fan of Pratchett's Discworld series, and apparently  both Mary and I always came up with similar  kinds  of  chaotic,  quirky worlds and that we also had the same sort of humour. Most of the time our planning days are really just us cracking awful jokes at each other!
Tempus

I can't really think of any other influences we both share, I was influenced a lot creatively, especially in story telling by writers like Jonathon Stroud, Garth Nix and Isobelle Carmody.

Mary: Yes! Terry Pratchett is a big big influence on my writing, as well as Neil Gaiman's work. Darren Shan's  Saga of Darren Shan  and Derek Landy's  Skulduggery Pleasant  series were also big influences. A lot of dark humor and fantasy settings. 

Yu-Gi-Oh as well.  Always Yu-Gi-Oh.  Very important influence. 


END OF PART TWO.
Read part three here

Follow the progress of Rosetta Phone here



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