Kevin's Watch

Why? The time range is vast, the territory is enormous, the characters are amazing, the ideas are wonderful, there's so much told and so much left untold, and, particularly important, I'll hardly dig it out in the interviews, so

wayfriend wrote:Stephen R Donaldson once said, I have no objection at all to what's commonly called "fan fiction": stories written without pay for the amusement and edification of the writer, and possibly of the writer's friends and associates--as long as the original sources are given appropriate credit. ...

kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=17757&start=0

Thanks, wayfriend)

Thus, there's a lot of reasons to write fanfiction. I understand it may turn out time-consuming, some feel unsure about their abilities, some just can't start, etc. However, we have a horrid, horrid large amount of time before TLD, and then even no more Chrons to wait for at all. Though we may start sending SRD horrid ideas in hopes it's going to work like with the 2nd and 3rd Chrons You don't have to write in the amount of the Chrons themselves, your talent may be far above what you perceive (or you may get helpful critics for improvement ), and if you're waiting for some push - well, here it is. At least now I'll have to drag myself to post something after all I said

Well...

I suspect the Watch may no longer see Hyperception, and it was suggested at the time that his WWM limerick entry be posted in The Hall of Gifts. It does sort of get buried amongst all of the other contests in that thread.

Since it is chrons themed, shall I post it there for him?

And who are you asking, or people in general? Well, I think it shouldn't be lost, so much of the good stories are almost not possible to find or went down with the old boards and the kevinswatch site...

hmm...

I guess in general I would be asking wayfriend, as it was an entry in his game.

Not to sound disheartening, Eff, but I don't think most people here are interested in this sort of thing at all. :/ I don't know if the situation was different two years or so ago, but now it's very, very difficult to get even one or two readers, not to mention feedback. My bigger project went downhill from the start. Quarter a year of crickets. Had to ask for help over half a dozen times. Eventually culminated into name-calling. This sort of experience doesn't encourage to try again, no matter how many ideas one might have. Nor does it help overcome potential confidence problems.

People may occasionally look at pictures, but getting concrit even on them has become difficult lately. You can count those taking part in the dissections with one and a half hands, and I gather they were supposed to be one of the 'bigger events' here.

Quarter a year? Was it during my half a year absence? And may I get a link to that project, if possible?

And getting no comments or next to that is no real reason to worry, I think it's not fanfiction.net here, and even there good stories may have next to no response.

I have to admit, I've been neglecting doing this for a while, and well, posting at all for some time. Now I don't exactly have loads of free time as well, but at least some. And so I'm going to be more attentive to such things.

I find that disheartening, after an LOTR forum that was extremely active, lively, fun and interesting 7 years ago is a big echo chamber now and I see that future looming over the Watch.

SRD will hopefully keep writing after TLD, although he will certainly have earned some down time... but if the forum is based on his books and only a few are actually interacting around them, then it can't last forever.

That being said, I would love to read some fanfic, especially if it had to do with the current story line (like, How the Harrow Got His Beads). And no slash. But yes, I understand how hard it is to get any readers and feedback on fiction on this site.

I think it was. I deleted the thread among several other "duds". I'm afraid feedback's extremely important if you're worrying about out-of-character behavior, inconsistencies, the effects of self-created elements, general readability, and, most of all, grammar/vocabulary as a non-native English speaker. The last issue was eventually looked into by a very kindly person, so that I was at least able to edit the draft into a less messy shape.

Well, since you asked... If I can spare a while tonight from other things, I could try to see if I have the forum-formatted texts still left on my computer. The story has a few inconsistencies that would require fixing, but unfortunately have no time for that right now. It's not slash (others may like that but it's not my cup of coffee).

FF.net's not a good place for chrons fics; the fandom's unknown there.

If the silence indeed deepens from the present situation, there soon isn't much left here, save for the politics and games forums. :/

I'm not exactly sure what happened or what is happening to discussion boards like KW. Maybe its Facebook that is having an impact on our social interaction here which is as good an explanation as any I guess.

As to feedback for original writing there has always been a reluctance, by most not all, members of the Watch to offer comments for posted work. However there was a time a few years ago when the Kevinswatch Anthologies were fairly popular among members and we had a great deal of participation. We managed to publish 3 collections of short stories by member authors and it was lots of fun, for me in particular. However our attempt at a fourth volume resulted in very few submissions and we were forced to cancel the series. I don't know if I'm reporting on a symptom of a deeper problem or if there was a sudden lack of interest in the books themselves.

In any case one shouldn't be too disappointed by a lack of feedback. It very well could have nothing to do with your work.

People leave, new people join; I've been here nearly a decade, and even when I was new people kept mentioning how they missed the ones that weren't around any more and how it wasn't the same as it used to be. I hadn't noticed a particular slowdown lately, but maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

(The last time I explained about the import of feedback and different types of artistic functions, the discussion got very, very ugly. Let's not do that again, eh? )

I'm repeating this, but some of us are just extroverted when it comes to creativity, and cannot change the way their brains are built. Actually the whole point of posting drafts and works-in-progress, whether written or visual, would be to get feedback and discuss the good points or shortcomings. Some, me included, just often get "stuck" if they can't somehow brainstorm ideas with others, and draw the necessary inspiration from that, among other things. This is very subjective.


That's sad to hear about the anthologies...I would say it relates to some deeper problem (and I've noticed a clear slowdown here, even during the while I've been present). The same's affecting the Watchy awards, dissections, etc.

Facebook and other social media may explain some of it. I don't use FB; got rid of my account years ago after too much wall-spam and pointless status updates in the lines of "I'm drinking water from a plastic bottle!!" Very exciting!

Menolly wrote:I guess in general I would be asking wayfriend, as it was an entry in his game.

As best as I can determine, you're asking if you can repost Hyperception's limerick in the Hall of Gifts because he first posted it in Win Wayfriend's Money, and so somehow my permission is desired?

This one ?

Go ahead. I am only the muse - he is the artist.

wayfriend wrote:

Menolly wrote:I guess in general I would be asking wayfriend, as it was an entry in his game.

As best as I can determine, you're asking if you can repost Hyperception's limerick in the Hall of Gifts because he first posted it in Win Wayfriend's Money, and so somehow my permission is desired?

This one ?

Go ahead. I am only the muse - he is the artist.

Wayfriend, I have a buyer for mt arguleh picture, but I need your permission to sell it. The buyer wants to pay a million €. Just let me know what you decide and if I get a share of the money. Thanks!!!

Sure. But get it in ₯ - modern currency only, please.

Eff, Deer, here you go: kevinswatch.ihugny.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22383

It's quite...soppy. Don't gag.

Like I said, it has a couple of inconsistencies that would require revising. Had also originally intended to throw in a picture or two, but that inspiration got iced over.

Thank you)

Murrin wrote:People leave, new people join; I've been here nearly a decade, and even when I was new people kept mentioning how they missed the ones that weren't around any more and how it wasn't the same as it used to be. I hadn't noticed a particular slowdown lately, but maybe I'm not looking in the right places.

Nope, there's definitely a slowdown right now, Murrin.

Things happen, people have other things in their lives. I know I have gone fairly inactive here at various times in my life, although I continued to stay active in a different, much smaller forum where I have more longstanding and face-to-face relationships with the members.

Sometimes I just get too busy to keep up with so much online stuff.

I think part of what kept me from being more active here, during my slow times of visiting here, is the sheer number of forum subdivisions. It's too much to keep track of and I think it may be intimidating for some. I never like that we kept proliferating more and more subforums, but mine was the minority voice. And maybe the number of forums has nothing to do with the activity level. But it can dilute the "perceived" activity level, because the "new" posts are spread all over the different forums and if the forum title is something you don't think you're interested in, you won't even bother to go there.

Just my two cents' worth.

Regarding the slowdown, also wanted to add that for those with children, at least in the US, this is a busy time of year, with end of school activities, graduations, summer plans being formulated, etc. So that could account for a slowdown, as well.

I think we could do without seperate forums for some things, like the individual Last Chronicles forums (maybe one main forum and a subforum for just the latest book), and the TC movie forum is totally unnecessary. I don't think Doriendor Corishev has been popular enough to stay, and I think it's about time we retired some of the single-author forums (in fact, the only semi-active ones seem to be GRRM and Erikson).

Slowdown? I hadn't noticed, though to be fair, I haven't ventured into any of the TC forums in quite some time, as I think I've said everything I need to about the first 6-1/2 books, and the less said about the LCs, the better.