LJ Idol Presents:

I agree with this post, and I know why you posted it. The contestant who worried about disappointing people is not only a former teammate but has become a friend. She is the sweetest person in the world and often comes up with thoughtful, creative pieces that surprise and delight me. But as I told her, everybody has off weeks, and I never see anyone, as a writer, as reduced to their worst week. I think that's what I like about this season. Too often, I'll have a strong season and then, due to a weak idea, which I typically agree with the voters is not my best work, I get eliminated. This time, I have a choice in how I go out. If I don't have the time to write, I can just take a strike, or I can do what I've been trying to do, and do my best, in that moment, every week. Then, it will take three weeks of less-than-stellar writing -- or three weeks of writing that's less stellar than my competition -- to be eliminated. It's hard to say at this point, because it always sucks to be eliminated, but I imagine when it happens, it will feel a little bit more fair than it has sometimes seemed in the past. Just because I'll know it's the consequence of a downward trend, and that it's my time.