Green Room - Week 18 - Day 1

[jenwithapen]

Your topics are right over here: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1044767.html

Hi ya'll. I hope you'll forgive me, I totally flubbed the date Gary was leaving (thinking Thursday, instead of Wednesday, despite the fact that he reminded me a billion times (just kidding, of course. It was like 5 (billion times)! ;D). Anyway, I am super sorry I'm opening the Green Room so late! Hopefully, if we won't have a chance to talk tonight, we can talk tomorrow. =DD I'll be here all week, so don't forget to tip your bartender. ;)

OH, JEEZ! Speaking of which, I'm your bartender! ;DD The temp agency sent me over. Nah, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Jen (aka rejeneration over at LJ for several several OOF several years. =D). I'm still Jen, just now more with a pen, and here at our lovely new home at Dreamwidth!

If you need anything over the next week, if you have any questions or thoughts about the prompts or what you're writing, if you have any concerns or achievements you want to discuss, or if you'd like to get into a debate about politics or religion.... well, okay, let's just keep this one sweet and easy. ;D Heh, there's a "that was my nickname in high school" joke just begging to be told, but... we'll keep it PG or PG-13 for now. ;) Just... if there's anything I can do, please let me know, and I promise we'll have a new Green Room early tomorrow morning. =D

Last thing, don't forget to get out there and vote for all your favorites! =DD I know what it is to put in the hard work and the effort into performing here, and you should all be so proud of yourselves! Not just for making it as far as you have in the competition, but for your creativity, your dedication, and your continual assiduity (oh yeah! Gary's not the only one with $10 words! No sir! ;D Sadly, he is the only funny one, tho!).

Take care, have fun, and if you want or need anything, I'll be here!

Comments

[hwango]

Hello! I do actually have a question. I asked this in an earlier green room and only got one answer, so it seems worth asking again for possibly a different opinion. The prompt that's a quote - "Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life" - what do you think the author meant by that?

[jenwithapen]

Hello there! =DD So happy you asked!

My take could go two ways, the first I admire, while the second one, hmm, let's just say I'm not a huge fan. =D Oh, the dichotomy!

So, let's go with the good one first. Probably, like most of us here, when we write, we want to give it our all. We want not only to connect with the reader, but we want them to experience it, too. I'd say every sight, sound, taste, and smell, but if we did that, we'd be George R. R. Martin or Anne Rice, and those are some pretty big shoes to fill. ;D Still! We want to convey the pertinent ones. We want them to be able to see the color of the sky (because they're different everywhere), or feel the temperature of a lake (because every body of water is a little different), or to hear the construction on the street (because life is a variety of rackets, and getting the reader to swim around in the atmosphere we've created well... that's what we do this for! =D

I think one interpretation, then, could be that the author believes the devil really is in the details. And for prolific writers (for good writers!), the research never stops. Not just the kind we Google, or on very, very rare occasions find ourselves in a library or bookstore (they really do exist, I swear it! ;D), but the kind that comes with living in it. Nothing sells a piece of writing more than personal experience.

The second interpretation, unlike the cheery first, could be taken as a complaint. It is a bit of an albatross for writers. No matter where you are, or what you're doing, you're always looking for the story. Finding inspiration in the sights and sounds of the real world. Sometimes to our own detriment. I remember a post Laurell K. Hamilton made a while ago. In order to turn out the volume of work as quickly as she does, she's forced to sequester herself in her office for months! She has a rigid schedule, but even outside of the time they'd promised to squirrel away for each other, they both found it hard to connect when her mind was stuck in another place. Or, how disengaged she'd become -- even in the simplest of things -- because she was always experiencing the emotion of the thing, digging in deep to uncover all the layers,just so she could pass it off to us (or her readers =D).

Becoming that hooked on a thing can be a very hard life to live. No wonder so many of us are alcoholics! And divorcees! ;D So, the second interpretation could look like someone absolutely exhausted by their profession (read it with a "Wah-wah" at the end), or even worse, like someone who's absolutely addicted to it.

I hope that helps! =DD Thanks for askin! I'll post another Green Room tomorrow morning, so if you still don't have the answers you need, maybe another Idoler can offer up some more inspiration! =DD

Sweet dreams!

[halfshellvenus]

Actually, it helps ME quite a bit, since I hadn't considered the first interpretation, and that opens the prompt up a lot.

Thanks, Jen!

[jenwithapen]

Absolutely, doll! =D Absolutely! =D I think that's what I love about Idol so much (well, jeez, truth is I have probably at least half a dozen reasons, if not more =D But it's still one of my favorites). I love how there are just so many ways for people to see and then utilize a prompt! <3

I can't wait to read, doll! =D Let me know if there's anything else I can do, ok?

[hwango]

Thanks - I had thought of a Constant Research angle to avoid the nitpicking of readers ("REAL dragons would never fly like that!"), but wasn't sure if that's what they were going for. My other thought was a lot like your second...a sort of thing where you don't work your 8 hour day and then go home, and are kind of always at work.

[jenwithapen]

Well awesomesauce! It's rare that I'm ever on the same page for two things, let alone one, so! ;D Can't wait to see what you turn out!