How to Host a QnA for Your OCs and Yourself!

As an obligatory introduction, to those new to the term, ‘Q&A’ literally stands for questions and answers. While the concept seems simple at first glance, there are actually multiple ways to run a Q&A for you as an artist, your OCs as individuals or a group, or even your persona (sona)!

Some notes before we start:

• Remember to use hashtag #UVCreators on anything you post about yourself or your sona! That’s the official hashtag for us Unvale creator folk.
• Don’t be too bummed out if your Q&A doesn’t gain traction immediately; new users are constantly discovering you, and might not be familiar with you, your OCs, or your sona, and be a bit unsure of what to ask. Linking to relevant pages is a great idea to help other users get familiar with you.
• Remember not to share any personal information that would break guidelines, as your Q&A will be taken down. Your safety is top priority; and on that note, if anyone gets weird in your comments, remember you can delete or report comments through the Unvale support button.

The Interview Method

An interview tends to be a sit down conversation between two people: the interviewer, and the interviewee. While it might be a bit unconventional for Unvale and require a bit of writing chops, this is a great way to get long form information out that you want to prioritize sharing! Here are some options for how your interview Q&A could go…

• You could use questions from other users and respond to them in long form; but remember to shout them out with clickable links to make your interview more snappy and clean!
• You could interview your sona or one of your OCs… or the other way around! Think about what big questions you’ve got for your OCs that you or others have always wanted to know, and ask away…
• If your OC isn’t much of a talker, try asking questions that could be asked by a simple ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
• Take a list of general ‘get to know me’ questions and apply them to yourself or your OCs. 

What are some ‘get to know me’ questions for creators? I’ve got you covered!

• Why did you choose your username, or why/how did you choose a character’s name?
• What got you into creating OCs, drawing or writing? 
• What’s your favourite thing to draw or write?
• What’s your favourite thing about Unvale?

The ‘Ask Me Anything’ Method

‘Ask me anything’, also known as ‘AMA’, is a pretty common form of Q&As. It’s an open forum for people to ask you about yourself, your work, your characters, and more! If you’ve got any specific things you want people to ask about, make sure to mention it; guiding and suggesting certain kinds of questions and conversation can make more shy users more likely to interact with your post.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a good idea to link to relevant pages on your AMA because other users might not be familiar with you and be unsure of what to ask you. These users will want to participate, but might end up asking more shallow questions than you might be hoping for. Like always, the best way to get others interested in your work is to be interested in theirs. Asking other users about their OCs might give you an idea of the kind of questions you’d like to be asked!

You can answer questions in or out of character, but make sure you give your commenters the ability to pick, or tell them beforehand what’s up! Not everyone is comfortable with roleplay out of the blue, after all.

The Frequently Asked Questions Method

Frequently asked questions, or FAQ, is a form of Q&A that focuses on the most important information that is commonly asked about. FAQs are unique because they tend to be updated over time with new information and new questions and answers. 

Consider the following:

• What questions are you asked the most often about yourself and your OCs? 
• What is the most important thing that you think other Unvale users should know about you and your work?
• What is essential information for people being introduced to your work for the first time?

FAQs are great ways to introduce a new potential fan to your work, or to simply summarize the most important things to remember about a character or a project. Plus, as the name implies, FAQs are the most commonly asked questions and will cut out repetition and avoid repeats! Adding your replies to questions you answered in the comment section to a FAQ also helps prevent users from having to track down information you’ve already shared.

Now that you’re equipped with some inspiration, go forth and question and answer away! Depending on your style, you might want to use #Q&A, #Q+A, or even #QandA; or all three! Making sure you cover all your bases is usually the best bet.

Though, I’ve got a question for you already… which of my blog posts has been your favourite?! Wait, there’s no blog comment section? Dang it.

If you’re looking for more articles to read, check out the work from my co-writer, Whim!