#sparkchamber 071017 Liz Dubelman
Today in the #sparkchamber, digital innovator Liz Dubelman. Liz first saw the Internet before there were browsers; “This,“ she thought, ”may be the invention of the century. Anyone will be able spread ideas, art, and information without the barrier to entry.”
She held several high-level positions at various entertainment entities, including a year as President of Cherry Lane Digital. A number of years later, Liz started VidLit to help authors understand their digital rights and opportunities, using her own short story Craziest as the prototype.
She created the successful Internet series What Was I Thinking?, and subsequently co-edited the book it was based on, What Was I Thinking? 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories [St. Martin’s Press, 2009]. She lives in Los Angeles with her political-satirist husband and aerialist daughter. She’s taken to calling herself a digital waitress, serving up whatever anyone orders from the vast Internet menu.
FInd VidLit on Facebook, and Twitter.
1.] Where do ideas come from?
Ideas are like spores. They’re part of life and they often live in unfavorable conditions.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
I’m consumed with the idea that any problem can be solved if it can be presented in a way that people can understand. If the answer can’t be found, the question hasn’t been asked correctly. This applies not just to words but to art as well. I’m an innovator, iterating on other people’s inventions. As a child, I always thought I would be an inventor.
3.] Early bird or night owl, tortoise or hare?
As Virginia Woolf said in A Room of One’s Own, a woman must have money and a space to be creative. In other words, in order to create you must have time to think, without the pressure of solving mundane daily problems. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury, so I create in fits and starts. I always carry a notebook. I write in cars, cafés, anywhere I can.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
I never feel done. Sometimes I’ll abandon a project for the time being and will go back to it many years later. I keep a Google doc of everything. Technology is my friend.