Green Room - Week 5 - Day 3

[clauderainsrm]

There is poll happening right now:therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1155039.html

and another prompt that will be closing in a couple days  https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1154191.html

. Which means the two who survive the write off are going to have a small window if they hope to survive very much longer.

Honestly, there's hardly anyone with an entry in right now.  So maybe everyone is in danger!  :D 

Going back over some old seasons reminded me of ways I would give out incentives to people who submitted early. Which is funny, because there were still people who took pride at being the last ones to get their entries in!   :D

***

How has your week been going? Any plans for this weekend? 

Comments

[roina_arwen]

I don’t remember incentives… unless maybe it was an extra bye? Hmm.

No plans yet for this weekend other than taking my MIL to dinner Friday evening.

[clauderainsrm]

Immunity was one of them. :)

[murielle]

I've been really struggling with ideas this season. I had hoped to post today, but I will be posting tomorrow, before sunset.

What weekend? ;-)

[reidharriscooper]

I have too many ideas, but thing they are not going to be worthy.
Same problem, different wording.

[murielle]

I know! It's frustrating, isn't it. 😊

[muchtooarrogant]

For me, I generally can come up with the broad outline of an idea, what I struggle with is "why would he/she do that?" Or, "what puts them in that situation?" I've been struggling with the "how" around the idea I used this week since Gary started the competition, and finally managed to create a framework. Now, I just hope it works! LOL

Dan

[murielle]

This season, it doesn't really start to flow until I sit down to write which is so weird. And then it just flows. I'm so grateful for it, however it works, but I'm sure I lose weight or hair or brownie points from the stress and worry. LOL!

[gunwithoutmusic]

I remember priding myself on being one of the first to submit most of the time, but the ideas gushed freely in those days, and took less finessing when they did come out. It probably doesn't help that I've been sick for the last few weeks.

Assuming I'm feeling mildly healthy this weekend (I'm working remotely tomorrow so I'll still be able to lay up in bed and "rest", so fingers crossed), I plan to do some deep cleaning and play some Final Fantasy XIV, mostly just chill.

[roina_arwen]

Heh, I get that. I’ve found that over the seasons (and I know this due to keeping a spreadsheet for seasons 4-10, which I’m working on updating) that in the 200 weeks of entries, plus about a dozen entries between Exhibit A and B (neither of which counted toward my weekly total), plus the occasional Home Game entry, that I started out writing about 90% nonfiction, with only smatterings of fiction and poetry. That has since reversed course to about 85-90% fiction and a smattering of nonfiction and poetry, lol!

[gunwithoutmusic]

I've been all over the board in my Idol career, from strictly humor writing to meta commentary to fiction to personal essays... I like to have a "theme" in mind for my entries for the season going in, something I'd like to explore more personally or get more practice in.

[roina_arwen]

A theme is a cool idea, I’ve never really considered it, but so much (for me) depends on the prompts, you know?

Meta commentary is SO not my thing, lol!

[gunwithoutmusic]

The meta commentary was only in I think the second season I played? Back in the days where we were several tribes of like forty people each. I was young and got a little disillusioned with how important the social aspect is to Idol, and I would get frustrated when I would see entries that I deemed "not good writing" getting tons and tons of votes because they had made connections and people liked them.

It's easy to fall into that trap, and I think that a bigger part of the reason I've been not performing as well as I have in the past this time around is that I've been severely neglecting the social portion of it than it is about going strictly poetry (although everyone knows that poetry is like, the worst thing you could focus on if you wanna win).

Thankfully I have matured quite a bit in the years since then and learned that it's better to focus on myself than to worry about what others are doing, and to also find the good in every post by every player. All of us are here putting in our best effort and we should all be recognized for that. Are some players more practiced than others? Sure. But I look at some things I wrote when I was in my late teens and early twenties, just getting started, and I think, 'Gosh did I think that was good?' so it helped me understand a little better.

Now (well, this season is a little different since I haven't been as active) I try to encourage everyone and I always vote for everyone. Not particularly strategic but I love this game and I just wanna see everyone succeed.

As far as theming goes, I usually find that it helps me keep focus. It offers up an extra challenge but also helps with idea generation. When I played Survivor Idol, all of my entries up to the end were based around hikes I had taken, so when presented with a new prompt, I would start from, 'what hike have I done that I can relate this concept to?' rather than having to start from the topic alone. It can be limiting, but also fun to try and fit Gary's wild prompts to the idea I already had. :)

[roina_arwen]

I got a little disillusioned with how important the social aspect is to Idol, and I would get frustrated when I would see entries that I deemed "not good writing" getting tons and tons of votes because they had made connections and people liked them.

YES. This. It’s a writing competition but just like in the Survivor game, there’s always a social aspect, and on LJ especially, the size of one’s active friends list definitely played a part when posting the poll thread. Possibly (probably) many people would only cast a vote for their friend. Ideally, they would read and vote for others as well, maybe decide to join the community, but I’m not sure how often that happened.

I will say that while I don’t vote for ALL the entries in the poll, I typically vote for at least 75% of them. We have some seriously good writers in this group!

[murielle]

I remember your hike entries. I really enjoyed them.

I haven't been able to keep up with the social aspect of the game, either, this season. I'm focusing on the writing and the reading. When we have hundreds playing I cannot keep up and I feel terrible about that. This is a manageable group for me. ;-)

[gunwithoutmusic]

Yeah, I'm definitely not commenting as much as I used to - I'm reading but definitely not keeping up so it sort of would feel weird to be commenting on someone's third entry when we're on week 6. Maybe I should anyway, lol

[muchtooarrogant]

What, I thought we were all doing this for the comments. LOL

Dan

[roina_arwen]

My opinion is that comments are nice to get, and while some folks will go into detail about what they liked, others will just say they enjoyed it, and that’s fine too. It’s nice to know people have read your work and hopefully liked it!

[roina_arwen]

The size of this group is just about perfect - enough to keep one occupied but not so much as to be overwhelming. I’d be lost without my trusty spreadsheet, especially when reading pre-poll, when they are posted in random order!

If you don’t have a spreadsheet, I highly recommend it! Just use the last poll so you get all the names in alphabetical order, then remove the folks who got eliminated this week. I believe there are only 36 left.

[murielle]

I wish I were that organized. I just check to see if I've commented, surest way to not read and comment twice. :-)

[roina_arwen]

For me, it’s not just remembering if I’ve read it, but also if I’m going to vote for it.

[reidharriscooper]

I am tempted to check out a convention called Flamecon, but I only know ONE of the actual guests and it is a very comics and merch based convention. Yes, all LGBTQ+ which is awesome, but it costs $40-60 to get in and then it's still a purchasing con with not enough programming or exciting free stuff to warrant it for me personally, other than maybe meeting fellow nerds. (I have never made a friend at a convention that I didn't know in SOME fashion prior to it in 30 years of going to different ones).

But if I go that'd be my weekend. But knowing me with everything else going on, catching up on just me time is the best thing to do. I need me time.

[pixiebelle]

I don’t remember the incentives. I’m almost always a last minute person, it often takes me a few days to get an idea. Especially lately, my brain has been rusty and I feel like I’m struggling to find my voice, but that’s why I joined - to hopefully get back to writing regularly.

Today was a holiday in France so I dragged my husband out. We took the pup to the forest to spend a day in nature. There’s also a castle because of course there is. It’s one of my favorite places to go. We met with friends and had a tart in the gardens. Tomorrow I’m meeting another friend for Indian food. It’s wild how moving to a foreign country has been the best for my social life, it’s been easier to make friends here. I’ve always struggled with that before but now I feel like I’m always going out.

[roina_arwen]

Oh good, I’m not the only veteran who doesn’t remember the incentives! Per Gary’s reply above, one of them was immunity! I probably never won one, hence the lack of remembrance!

[pixiebelle]

I saw that! It might have been before my time… or maybe that I know I never could get an entry in early, so I just ignored it 😂

[muchtooarrogant]

"There’s also a castle because of course there is. "

LOL When I was traveling in England/Scotland, the amusing part to me was, regardless of the attraction, there would always be some sort of "SHOP!" Commercialize that castle/landmark/rock formation. I haven't been to France though, so don't know if it's the same there.

Dan

[pixiebelle]

We don’t have the shops like that except at very famous tourist attractions like the Eiffel Tower. In fact, I find it’s the opposite. I can head somewhere seemingly random and unknown and boom, there’s a castle or a medieval building with a huge historical significance that’s just randomly in the middle of the street and everyone is walking by without a second look. This castle is in the suburbs of Paris and in a town no one visits unless you live here, and there’s a castle, gardens that rival Versailles in beauty (though smaller) and forests. It was also the birthplace of King Louis XIV. But it’s just there. People walk by it daily. No gift shop commemorating it.

Or once I was going to a medical appointment in a random suburb and walked over to the river to find the history of the bridge that dated back to the 14th century, along with a restaurant that was almost as old. Paintings had been done about the bridge, it’s fairly famous but no gift shops, no tourists. People just walked past it on their way to work.

[roina_arwen]

I guess when you live with something there all the time, it’s just like, “that old bridge?” Lol! Plus in Europe practically everything is so old compared to the US!

[erulissedances]

I'm torn between two different entries I've been working on - both legitimate with legs, but neither one ready for posting yet. I'm hoping to finalize and get my entry posted today, although it might be a late post. I don't like to post on the due date - too many things to think about with time zones and work schedules.

- Erulisse (one L)

[roina_arwen]

Yes! I’ve got my entry started, and I basically know where it’s going, it’s just a matter of getting there. I’m hoping to finish and polish it up to post before bedtime tonight.

If you’re on the fence about which entry, either seek a second opinion or go with your gut.

[muchtooarrogant]

I generally enjoy writing on Saturday/Sunday, but this particular due date scared me because it happened halfway through the day! (shudder) For me, I knew if I put it off, there would be some sort of calamity not allowing me to finish, especially since I write slow anyway!

Best of luck on your entry!

Dan

[kizzy]

:thinking:

Incentives IIRC included immunity, an extra bye, and I think a skip week when things got hot and heavy toward the top 10? Maybe that was tied to the immunity, I don't remember.

I got today and tomorrow off because I switched with my baking cohort. Tomorrow is my third eldest nephew's wedding shower. It's a Jack and Jill and it's at a nearby restaurant. They already had one down in VA where his fiancee is from. Methinks this was planned to give my 91 year old MIL something to talk about.

[roina_arwen]

So I’m curious now: “third eldest nephew” - how many nephews/nieces/niblings do you have??

My brother has no children, so I have no nephews/nieces. To be fair, I also have no children, so there’s that, lol.

[kizzy]

OMG, let me see...there are 16 nieces/nephews altogether, all on SO's side. I have none, being an only. There are :counting on fingers: 6 nephews and 10 nieces. There's a huge age gap between the three eldest (the oldest is in his early 30s; the nephew who's getting married in Oct is in his mid 20s) and the three youngest. The youngest nephew just graduated from high school. The youngest niece is still in high school. The oldest niece is getting married next year, LOL!

[roina_arwen]

Wow! That’s a lot of folks to keep track of! SO must come from a pretty big family!

[bleodswean]

Today, a friend who stayed on the hill and fought the fire to save his house is having us stop by to discuss business. This is going to be very, very difficult because he lives on the far east side of the ridge and that is where the majority of the fire burned through and destroyed 99% of everything over there...

Other than that, busy with post-fire things, writing for Idol, and my mother.

[murielle]

*Hugs*

Poor soul.

Today you are my hero(ine)!

Cannot wait to read your words.

[strryeyedgrrl]

I took a mental health day from work on Monday and accomplished 1) laying about on TikTok and 2) laundry. So it was a win. But it made the rest of the work week swamped af, so I've been playing catch up and stressing over a presentation I wanted/needed to give to a team I partner with a lot. I stayed up late last night working on it because I procrastinated that much and also maybe thrive on that kind of chaos. Gave the presentation today and it seemed to be received well. I ended it with a storytime, as is my nature, and explained that my greatest weakness as a professional content writer is the fact that I can never be brief. Ever.

Gonna probably spend the weekend couch rotting once I finally write something for this week's prompt. If I'm a smarty, I'll do it tonight, but I'm not feeling like a smarty right now.