Final Tribal Council

[clauderainsrm]

Let's welcome in the Jury... jenwithapen  bittyjane , megatronix , impoetry , n3m3sis43 ,
minikin25,wolfden , lawchicky819 , bsgsix , swirlsofpurple , eeyore_grrl , bleodswean , adoptedwriter , alycewilson murielle , and gunwithoutmusic - voted out at the last tribal council.

16 people that you had a hand in, directly or indirectly, voting out of this game. Their dreams of winning may have ended. But the power is now in their hands.

Here is how this is going to to work -

flipflop_diva and halfshellvenus  -You will both have the opportunity to make Opening Statements. You job is to convince these people WHY you should win.



Once BOTH of the finalists have made their opening statements, then the Jury will be able to ask their questions, as well as any follow ups they wish. This is in the modern, open-discussion model of tribal council, with the online twist. :)  They can ask anything they want. 


This will continue for a few days, or until the Jury is satisfied that they have enough information on which to base their decision.  At that point I will announce that it is time to vote. 







(Note- DW has been randomly hiding parts of the post - so if any of it vanishes, just keep going. You know if you are on the Jury or not. and if you are a finalist. I've tagged you. But DW has already erased a bunch of tags several times when I've tried to post this)               



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If the two of you would like to make a final statement to the Jury, before the vote begins now would be the time to do so.  This is your last opportunity to address the Jury. 

Comments

[halfshellvenus]

Hi, B! It's so great to see you here again, and thank you so much for your very kind comments!

This is such a terrific question, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer it. I had to go back through the comments to find the best answer for this, because there wasn't one that immediately stuck out. I know which story I'd hoped to find the comment on—it was the poem about my daughter, "You, Once My Girl." That was such an intensely personal and emotional poem for me, and while other people seemed to really like it, I couldn't pick find a particular comment that showed it hit as hard as I'd hoped it would.

Instead, the comment that most surprised me was bsgsix's response to The Eye Of The Storm. I had intended to write a more purely comic entry, but it took a different turn than I expected, one that honestly made it a better story.

When I'd started, I'd been thinking about our son. He had undiagnosed ADHD growing up, mainly because we thought he was just super-bright (been there, done that) and high-energy (very common in little kids, especially boys). His impulse-control problems were mostly limited to blurting things out and/or mouthing off (my younger sister). But what if he's been more obviously ADHD? What might his childhood have looked like then, especially in an earlier era when people just thought such children were ornery and willful?

As I got farther into the story, though, and started to envision my character's family and the world around her, my idea of her grew and changed. She became less of a persnickety dynamo of destruction and more a curious, energetic child who always had to fight for the good things in life, whether it was treats or just attention. And far too many children go through that, whether their parents are overwhelmed (as her mother was) or simply disinterested or neglectful.

Having someone really see her, and acknowledge and respect that need for love and attention, is what really changes the character. Being nurtured, instead of being ignored or brushed away like a pesky fly.

bsgsix noted that the story had moved her to tears, and that she could really relate to that little girl. I hadn't expected the story to have that strong an emotional impact on anyone—it really surprised me. We got to talking about the feelings running underneath the surface of children in those situations, and what those kids' "grabby" behavior really means, and that discussion hit me in a way that has only come up one or two times before:

I forgotten that sometimes, you aren't just telling a simple, made-up story. You're telling a story the reader has actually lived, or at least part of it. Whether it's the pain of the reader's own truth, or a better ending that might have meant the world to them, or even something else entirely, your story isn't just a an abstract diversion for them. It's touching them on a very personal level that really matters to them.

Even reading some of the other comments, I could see that Bitsy's story spoke to people from the heart of what the story became instead of what it had started out to be. And that's what you really want, as a writer, when you're lucky enough to have it happen.

And in the next breath, you suddenly hope to god you did the idea justice. :O