Kevin's Watch

OK, like all the rest of you, I am not only amazed and impressed that SRD has a section on his website where he directly answers questions sent to him. I myself have sent a couple that nagged at me.
BUT!... As he not so subtly hinted at before, amount of time answering GI questions, takes away from time spent on next book!
3 years projected time?!!!! Stop the madness! Stop sending questions! There will be plenty of time in 10 years time, when all four books are out, to ask questions and receive answers! SRD promised he would live forever!
So, please, stop sending questions (over 200 questions back-log!!!) I want the next book ASAP!!!!

Ok, that is all. I had my rant. Go back to your lives...

I'm with you on this one. I haven't submitted a question in months. However, I'm not sure that the people who're submitting questions now are necessarily KW members - at least I don't get that impression. One thing I've noticed is that questions are generally posted to the website late in the evening, and I get the feeling that SRD is using the GI as a kind of "cooling off" period, before leaving the office. If that's the case, more power to him

I submitted the first ever question to the GI, and one about a year ago. None since then.

I've only submitted a single question to SRD and that was last year. If I may puff up and do some chest-beating, let me say that my question seems to have been a unique one which no one else has repeated.

I agree with dlbpharmd. SRD had mentioned previously in the GI that he works on his books only during weekdays on a 9-to-5 kind of schedule and leaves his evenings and weekends free for other things.

I, for one, agree with SRD, in that the GI is more help than hindrance.

In the GI was wrote:2) There is no question that I *have* been influenced by the GI--but not in the way(s) you describe. As a narrative artist, I face an incessant dilemma which (I believe) plagues all artists in one form or another: I suffer from a natural and understandable (and perhaps inevitable) impulse to *leave out* anything that seems perfectly obvious to me. At the same time, I expound endlessly on anything that I find obscure or difficult. But guess what? The things that are obvious to me are seldom obvious to the reader. At the same time, readers are quicker on the up-take than I am (because they read so much more quickly than I write). So: the GI has been particularly good at helping me catch those passages where I have left out the "obvious." To a lesser extent, the GI helps me recognize instances of excessive explanation. When it is complete, "The Last Chronicles" will be a, well, more stable edifice because of the GI.

Of course, editors are supposed to do this job. But these days what editor has the time?

Wayfriend wrote:I, for one, agree with SRD, in that the GI is more help than hindrance.

In the GI was wrote:2) There is no question that I *have* been influenced by the GI--but not in the way(s) you describe. As a narrative artist, I face an incessant dilemma which (I believe) plagues all artists in one form or another: I suffer from a natural and understandable (and perhaps inevitable) impulse to *leave out* anything that seems perfectly obvious to me. At the same time, I expound endlessly on anything that I find obscure or difficult. But guess what? The things that are obvious to me are seldom obvious to the reader. At the same time, readers are quicker on the up-take than I am (because they read so much more quickly than I write). So: the GI has been particularly good at helping me catch those passages where I have left out the "obvious." To a lesser extent, the GI helps me recognize instances of excessive explanation. When it is complete, "The Last Chronicles" will be a, well, more stable edifice because of the GI.

Of course, editors are supposed to do this job. But these days what editor has the time?

Well said, Wayfriend! I think SRD is a "big boy": if he didn't want to answer GI questions he wouldn't. As Wayfriend says (and as SRD himself basically says), it's more of a help than a hinderance. I don't think people should be saying "don't send in GI questions, it is stopping him from working on Fatal Revenant". I think everyone should just stop thinking SRD is incapable of making theses decisions for himself. Surely he deserves more credit than that!

My personal opinion: he's probably quite a few chapters into FR already!

Seareach wrote:I think everyone should just stop thinking SRD is incapable of making these decisions for himself. Surely he deserves more credit than that!

Quite so! To shut down the GI because SRD might waste some of his working time is like . . . well . . . it's like someone forbidding all use of Earthpower because it might lead to another Desecration.

Spoiler

And look where that got us! Thanks a million, Masters.

Variol Farseer wrote:

Seareach wrote:I think everyone should just stop thinking SRD is incapable of making these decisions for himself. Surely he deserves more credit than that!

Quite so! To shut down the GI because SRD might waste some of his working time is like . . . well . . . it's like someone forbidding all use of Earthpower because it might lead to another Desecration.

Spoiler

And look where that got us! Thanks a million, Masters.

Well said, VF.

sheesh! Can't anyone take a joke....

What's that supposed to mean!!?!?!?

Usivius wrote:sheesh! Can't anyone take a joke....

Threads are like cats - they never go where you want them to.

Threads are like 18 year old kids - you throw them out and hope they turn out all right.

Threads are like your dad's car - you can start it, but you don't get to steer.

Etc. etc.

excellent wayfriend...

Instead of stopping altogether, perhaps we should just lessen the questions we send him.

IT WORKS FO' EV'RYBODDEE.

Well, I've never sent him a question, so don't look at me.

Variol Farseer wrote:

Seareach wrote:I think everyone should just stop thinking SRD is incapable of making these decisions for himself. Surely he deserves more credit than that!

Quite so! To shut down the GI because SRD might waste some of his working time is like . . . well . . . it's like someone forbidding all use of Earthpower because it might lead to another Desecration.

Spoiler

And look where that got us! Thanks a million, Masters.

It's also like appointing an arbitrary admin because the public might not be able to avoid well-marked spoiler forums. [/bitterness]

*pulls up pants
*runs away

(...I've got to stop reading the second page first....)

Dunno about stopping the GI, but it would be nice to get a FAQ up and require people to read it before asking questions.

Sylvanus wrote:it would be nice to get a FAQ up and require people to read it before asking questions.

That, my friend, is one of the Seven Unsolvable Problems of the Universe - how to get people to read a FAQ before posting a question. That, and a way to make Eggs Benedict so that everything is hot at the same time ... mmm, eggs Benedict .... anyway, if you could solve that problem, you're on your way to being a mult-millionaire.