Question time in festival land #SWF2010
Author: Elena Gomez
Like any book-lover/author-fawner/hack-writer, I honestly enjoy the sessions at writers festivals. Whether you accidentally stumbled into a great discussion on your quest to escape torrential rain, or lined up for many precious minutes for a chance to catch a glimpse of your favourite author, it’s almost always a rewarding experience.
Which is why it really grinds my gears when people ask ignorant, insensitive and just plain silly questions.
The non-question
“So, Ms Multi-lingual author, I learned a new language, and would like you to know that, and I don’t really have a question but if I add an upward inflection at the end will that suffice?”
The summing up question
“So, Mr. Digital Reading Expert, you’re saying that new reading devices will change the way people read and write?”
The spoiler question
“So, Ms International Novelist, at the end of your book, when it turns out that…(insert mega spoiler here), what ever happened to so-and-so?”
The convoluted and confusing question that has nothing to do with anything
“So Mr Expert in Apple Picking, how do you think the advent of Lychee juice will impact your work?”**
Not that I’m one to complain. What kind of punter am I?
The one that comes into most of my events late, with squeaky, drenched shoes and a dripping umbrella. The one that takes notes with a scratchy pen and gets a scratchy throat at the most inconvenient moments. The one that has a brain-melt when I get to actually talk to one of the authors, saying things like “I really loved your book” and “your session was really good” over and over again.
If they locked out late people, gave the writers bodyguards, and allowed some sort of Red Faces gong to cut off inappropriate and/or spoiler type questions, perhaps I would have nothing left to complain about.
**Sorry, some questions were just a bit too confusing to relay in their original form
Tags: #swf2010, sydney writers festival
9 Responses to “Question time in festival land #SWF2010”
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May 26th, 2010 at 10:21 am
This is so true. The questions I hate the most are the questions where the asker just wants to display how wonderfully knowledgeable they are. I was also in a session at this writers festival with John Ralston Saul and someone asked a horribly rascist question about “zionist elits waging war on the rest of us”. I nearly died.
May 26th, 2010 at 10:27 am
I hosted a session at the festival year, and I would be so happy to have a few dud questions in order to get more audience/panel interaction. I asked for questions from the audience right through my interview with Tom Cho on Sunday at the MCA, and although I only had a couple of bites – one of those (about bragging being the inverse of a kind of desperation in relation to Tom’s work) was one of the best questions asked.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
ahah very true. have you noticed it always the most plodding and boring questioners who seem to monopolise the precious moments of interaction with ‘awesome author’. there should be guidebook on appropriate witty and amusing questioning given to punters before they enter. or better yet a tutorial.
also empathise with ‘brain-melt’ moment. so now i just avoid the post-session groupie crush to sign/see/touch said literary idol (also saves you the mortification of realising they fail your lofty expectations.)
May 26th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Becky: *cringe* !!
Matt: I was at that session and yes, that was a brilliant question, perhaps there’s something in this ‘dumb questions are better than no questions’ idea. Maybe people were thrown off by the originality and freshness of the format itself? (Music Q&A as opposed to regular old panel sesh)
Sarah: I had that same idea – On the guidebook/ session on asking clever questions
Something to think about for SWF2011?
May 29th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
‘Omg! I just so love your work! You are seriously so like.. the best! I just want to say, like.. do you have any advice for, you know, like people, who wanna become an author .. and stuff?’
Ok, slight exaggeration, but it seems to be those with nothing to say who have the most to say.. you know what I’m saying.. and as the slightly shy wrestle with ’should I or shouldnt I’ debate, the time is already chewed up.
One particular example which still irks me to this day is a moment I experienced at the NSW Writers Childrens Festival about 5 years back. I had just finished my first novel after 2 years of work, a frollicking Junior Lord of the Rings, and one of the major panellists of the event was giving impromtu advice, it seemed, in the foyer. Now I’m one of these people who hate ingratiating themselves but I thought it an opportunity worth pursuing, as naturally I was desperate for advice. However the woman in question was completly surrounded by a bunch of people and I had to wait ever so long to get close. Just as I was about to get my turn, further edging up the queue, a woman about 60 just pushed straight in front and said, “So, I was thinking about writing a Harry Potter type of thing. Do you think there’s a market for it?”
She had’nt even written a thing! And here I was with a fresh, 80,000 word novel under my belt. Grr. I could have said something, but then I would have appeared rude and been the bad guy.
As Fate would have it, after the woman had sucked up precious minutes, the panellist had had enough, (read glum expression) and retreated to the ’sanity’ of the exit!
It was the grown up version of the diabtribe at the head of this comment.
Sorry to have gone on, but that one still grinds me deeply. Consequently, the novel remains unpublished, as do the five I’ve written since (adult & YA).
Sigh….
May 30th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Sometimes I wish there was some kind of scanning technology mounted at the entryways to writers’ festivals to weed out those of the longwinded/stupid/mortifying/dull questions. I am, however, ok about ’spoliers’. It drives me a little nutty when you are there to hear an author speak about their craft or a recent publication and not be able to have a discussion about it ‘in case someone hasn’t read it’. If you are at a session about a book and you haven’t read it you’ll just have to accept you might hear something revelatory.
June 9th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Anthony, I do so apologise for pushing in front of you (by accident – I’d left my glasses at home) and being over 60 which I now realise is quite criminal, especially when combined with being female. And I really should have had sufficient superpowers to intuit that you had an 80,000 word novel without any mention of it. I really am so very, very sorry and promise not to get in the way of any men of superior ability again!
June 11th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Lauren: I’m currently working on such technology with a science-y friend of mine. Will keep you posted.
I don’t mind spoiler questions if there is an actual question in there, but repeating the entire ending and asking what happened to the characters AFTER the end of the book is, to me, just a little unnecessary in front of a room.
June 11th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Re the spoiler question: I’m guessing SWF 08, Lionel Shriver in the Sydney Theatre. Am I right?
It’s a tough one: some great responses come out of audience questions, but I really wish there was a way to stop people getting on their soapboxes. My friend suggested that perhaps there should be a soapbox stand at SWF to allow people to get things off their chest, rather than ranting in the actual events!