Seeking advice

[crazeetyger.livejournal.com]

I was recently in an art trade with someone who was going to write a story in exchange for me doing art. He finished his story first and as I read it, I saw that the character names he had chosen, Reiko and Janden, were often replaced with Greta and Horace. I questioned him about it, and he admitted that he had pasted together a mish mash of previous stories he had written for his half of the trade.

I spoke with a friend about this who said I should post here. But that I should finish my half of the trade despite this, so I would "come out smelling like a rose." I don't feel I should be obligated to do this as he didn't actually write a new story.

I am unsure of what to do at this point. Any helpful advice would be much appreciated.

Comments

[lazer-the-hyena.livejournal.com]

You should not finish your half of the trade... I would express to the person whom you were trading with that you are not happy with the little stunt that they pulled and that you are no longer interested in this trade and just leave it at that. You should have no reason to finish an art work when you were giving such a substandard and unacceptable product from this author.

[syrusb.livejournal.com]

I like this solution the best. I wouldn't trust the writer to complete something legitimate at this point and I also wouldn't feel obligated to fulfill my side, effectively having been handed a forgery for trade. It's mentioned below, but I also feel like doing anything for the writer at this point would be like rewarding bad behaviour, even in a little way.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

This. Cancel the trade and walk away. He deserves nothing for recycling prior work, period. If you're concerned he may give you backlash make sure you screencap his admission.

[tunavoice.livejournal.com]

In agreement with this. I don't know if this is a good analogy or comparison, but recycling their old writing and just mixing it up a little to make something new when it really isn't just seems as bad as tracing your old art and making modifications to it.

[ocelotish]

What? Ugh!

I'm tempted to say put a mishmash of your other work together, trace it, then give him that, but two wrongs don't make a right.

What I would say is do something of the same effort he did. Do a sketch instead of a colored piece, but be upfront with him about it. Because he didn't give you new work, you feel that he did not honor your trade. He did not appreciate the work he was asking you to do by taking a short cut. Tell him this before doing anything for him, he may admit that it isn't fair and just say that you don't owe him anything, or at least open the floor for what amount of work is appropriate for what you got.

If nothing else, completing the full trade with him is encouraging his behavior. It's tricky, but this is a case where being professional doesn't mean just being pushed around.

[lazer-the-hyena.livejournal.com]

I just don't really agree with that. I don't think he should get anything for what he has done. Unless he agrees to rewrite a fully original story then I don't think the artist should create artwork for him, and this is only if the artist thinks they can trust him to actually do what he was asked and do it the right way this time.

[gargoylekitty.livejournal.com]

I would take one of my old drawings, doodle a little over top of it(like, if it's a drawing of a character for them, I'd sloppily draw that character's outfit ontop of the outfit already in the drawing) and send that to him.

Granted a more mature approach would be just to inform him that since he didn't uphold his end of the trade, you're no longer obligated to uphold your end.

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

Agreeing w/ Lazer that you honestly shouldn't do squat. (Not the mishmash of your own previous work) That's not fair to you at all. Or if anything give them a fraction of the trade you agreed upon, ex: you were asked to do a colored piece, give em a rough sketch or something.

I'm appalled that they thought that would even be remotely OK.

[kaliedosock.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with this a thousand times over.

I'm just shocked. I don't understand why anyone would think of this as a good idea.

[dangercrow.livejournal.com]

is it possible to just... ask him to start from scratch and legitimately write you the original story he'd promised? that way you'd be able to complete your half and no one gets cheated. its kind of vital that he's aware that what he did was pretty shitty and he's gotta own up to it.

[ocelotish]

He may just do the same thing/something similar, but be sneakier about it. You don't want to be the one searching to double check that he's honest, nor should you have to be.

If someone gives you counterfeit money or a bad knockoff, you don't ask them to try again.

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

I'd say, do your half of the trade... on an ACEO-sized card.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

Postage stamp.

[amocin.livejournal.com]

A few people have said to take mix matches of what you have done and give it to him in return. I do not agree with this as it would harm the integrity of your work.

I would not ask him to re-write it as its difficult to find out if it would be plagiarized, given your experience with him already, I would not trust him to re-do it and have the next copy be legit/original. Either give him a sketch or nothing at all. Either way is fine, as he basically tried to pull the wool over your eyes and should not be rewarded for doing so.

[ocelotish]

A few people have said to take mix matches of what you have done and give it to him in return. I do not agree with this as it would harm the integrity of your work.

Erm, I actively said that wasn't right to pull things together when I brought it up.

[sharpecostumes.livejournal.com]

Yes that was good he told you up front about what he did, but that's not completing his side. I'm not sure if you ought to do a piece of similar quality as your work reflects who you are and making a piece that matches his quality would not reflect your true skills and be potentially poor advertising for yourself. I would most likely back out and tell him the reason for doing so as he has not completed his half. As Celarania stated, he's pretty much given you a bad knockoff. Having him try again will just leave you wondering if it's legit or another counterfeit...

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

As others have said, don't finish your half. He technically didn't do his half anyway since the agreement was for him to write a story, not cut and paste a bunch of them together.

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

Also, I'd recommend posting a full beware about him as well so others don't get ripped off.

[jibacoil.livejournal.com]

Echoing the 'tell him what he did was not okay, and cancel the trade' advice. There's no telling he won't do the same thing again, unfortunately, so the trade's probably not going to be worth the effort on your part.

[mekania.livejournal.com]

I'd take the mature route and decline any further participation in the trade. Thats the only way you'd come out smelling like roses in my opinion. Like others have said, giving him any thing after what he tried would just reward bad behavior and you have no reason to do it. As long as youve been keeping a level head throughout and didnt go off at him then I think you have no reason to worry about coming off looking like the bad guy in this situation.

[deejthistle.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with others that you should cancel the trade and make him thoroughly aware of why. If the deal was an original story, you should get an original story. Cutting up older works and inserting your characters' names is no better than frankensteining a visual piece together, and you have every right not to trust him after that move.

[mgsfriedchicken.livejournal.com]

Echoing the others. Ditch the trade.

[megumi-kitten.livejournal.com]

Would they be alright if you mish mashed a bunch of old art for their half?

I doubt it. They didn't produce *original* (as in, they did it FOR the trade) work for you, so they don't get freebies.

[timelapsedecay.livejournal.com]

If he gave you insincere work, you owe him nothing. I would strongly encourage you not to do the mish-mash stuff others are suggesting- the 'eye for an eye' flavor it has will not sit well with you or your watchers in the long run.
I'd be pretty happy I didn't do my half first- then he would have gotten away with free art for very little effort. You're in a perfect place to just walk away and find someone worthwhile to trade with.

[ocelotish]

I would strongly encourage you not to do the mish-mash stuff others are suggesting- the 'eye for an eye' flavor it has will not sit well with you or your watchers in the long run.

The vast majority of people here have said the OP should not do a mish-mash of art when they brought it up. It was only hypothetical.

[magusmanx.livejournal.com]

echoing above. If they aren't going to uphold their half, why should you? The trade was not for a mishmash of old work with your character's names in it. It was for an original piece. I do hope you post a full beware on this gentleman or lady though, because even though I don't accept Stories for Art trades, I'd like to avoid them, just in case I ever start.

[fionacat.livejournal.com]

As a writer... i'd probably do the same to be blunt, i have at least two dozen stories in various states of completion all of which I have started on just to get the ideas down and some have progressed pretty far.

Let me just segway a moment, the main problem with the medium of writing is how long it takes, even a short 10 paragraph story is going to be about 2,000 words which if you are exceptionally talented at writing you can maybe get 19 words per minute for creative writing.

That's about 1 hour 45 minutes of writing for just 10 paragraphs.

So yeah to write anything really forfilling, i'd probably take shortcuts as well, including wholesale use of stuff i'd written much earlier on that was at least in a similar theme to what the comissioner was looking for.

I'm not saying you should be happy with the final result, the author should have polished it more and sense checked it fully before sending it to you.

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

As someone who also writes, I have to disagree. Although writing does take a lot of time, the trade was originally agreed that these would be, or expected to be, original works, not copy and pasted ones. Even if it takes hours to write a short story (though I do not know how long the story was supposed to be in this particular trade), the person still has an obligation to do it completely with no shortcuts. If it took them that long and they didn't have time, they should have never offered to trade that or asked if they could do something else. Hence why I'll probably never do a written trade.

Plus the artwork could have taken just a long as the writing.

[crazeetyger.livejournal.com]

I do have screen caps, of both his story and his admission. I also saved all of the notes.

When I noted him about it, like I said, he didn't dodge the question and admitted to what he had done. He also said that if I was not comfortable, I could walk away from the trade. Which I did, and I told him as much. I also blocked him, but I was pretty ticked at the time and I didn't want to see his username pop back up in my inbox.

I write on occasion. So I know that writing can take time to do, but there was no set time limit and there was no set word limit. I told him what I basically wanted and he said no problem.

My question would be now is: Should I do a full on beware? While I feel the issue has been resolved, I do not want him to burn anyone else.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

FYI, you can edit your posts to add stuff in, you just can't delete them.

As for your question, I would DEFINITELY like to know who this person is. I don't trust people who can't even put in the effort for a trade, their ethic is probably not that great for a business transaction with monetary involvement.

[kairi-koitra.livejournal.com]

This is just sad. If someone isn't going to put forth the effort to give you a 100% orignal piece then you should not put forth the effort into a piece at all.

A trade is an equal share of work between both parties involved. He violated his half of the trade by cutting and pasting pervious works together in hopes that you wouldn't notice.

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

While "eye for an eye" is a knee reaction to something like this I would like others advise against.

and with the other persons admission, saying that it's a mish mash I would not trust them to write a totally "new" story.

Do not finish your part of the trade as he has not fulfilled his half of the trade.

And yes post a beware, or update this to your beware post.