Green Room - Week 24 - Day 6

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

There is still a poll out there, http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/458636.html , to determine who will be moving on. People have been pointing out just how much fiction there is this week. Hopefully that's just how people decided to go with the topic rather than a general direction of the overall season/competition. I guess we will see how things shake out in the coming weeks.

***

I am currently reading the Bryson book "A Walk in the Woods" and just reached his visit to Centralia, Pennsylvania. More precisely, when he talks about the mine fire that started in 1962 and is still burning today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

If I didn't have to wait a season, I would make that a topic in and of itself, it's so interesting.

But since I have you here - what do *you* have burning, deep down inside? ;)

Comments

[alephz.livejournal.com]

I really do love doing fiction but I'm trying SO HARD to do more stuff that's a bit less fictiony... but, man, so often the topics only trigger a fiction-reaction.

Which is a bummer since while my own LJ is pretty heavy with fiction, it's also got still more non-fiction and, well, I'd like to write more non-fiction 'cause it's a mess of fun.

Also 'cause this is not a fiction contest. Not an explicitly non-fiction one, either, but there you are.

Just... yeah. Hard sometimes.

ETA: rattsu once wrote about that place (http://rattsu.livejournal.com/95619.html) when she thought it was my hometown. Wrong Centralia, as it turned out. Which is both good (not living in a town that's on fire FOREVER) and bad (not living in a town that's ON FIRE FOREVER).

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Er...this got longer than I intended and isn't so much targeted at you as yours was the comment that triggered it. ♥

I honestly find that sometimes it's easier for me to figure things out if I'm writing fiction. I could write non-fiction entries that explore the same ideas, because they're the ones I think about all the time, but I just feel like they'd be boring. Or maybe that's just because I live with myself all the time and other people wouldn't find it boring. But anyway, my fiction says more about who I feel like than my actual physical being does, so I just think it's 'truer' of me to write that way if I'm going to be representing myself. That's something I've rambled about several times during this season though, since it's got me thinking.

I don't know! I'm just glad Gary has been patient with us fiction writers, because I don't think I knew until week 10 or so that I was supposed to be writing non-fiction.

[alephz.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally understand what you're saying. I know it wasn't specifically for me/to me that you said it, but those are still really good/relevant points.

And, hey, there's no "supposed" in LJIdol. At least not that I've seen. It's all about what gets votes, in the end.

Well, that and how you feel about it.

That's the important part.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Hai. I'm really glad I did this because it's dragged me out of my box and made me feel a whole host of things I might not have felt otherwise.

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

As alephz, there's no "supposed to" per se, though Gary has stated a preference to not have fiction overrun the nonfiction. If fiction weren't allowed, it'd be stated in the rules!

And this topic hasn't come up nearly as much as it has in other seasons. The Great Fiction Debate happened somewhere between week 12-14 last season (I don't remember exactly, just that it was before joeymichaels sacrificed himself, since he'd written up a bunch of stuff about it. I don't remember who else was involved in that). This season has been quieter, for whatever reason, so these issues - whilst vets might be familiar with past debates - are actually useful to have aired every season.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I know it's not in the rules, but because Gary HAS stated a preference for non-fiction I've spent a lot of time feeling like I blundered into the wrong classroom and am just weird/interesting enough to make them keep me.

I'd actually be interested in seeing those debates, old and new, because I imagine that it changes slightly with each group of new people, just like how the competition itself has changed slightly. Like how someone mentioned below that poetry is more acceptable this season.

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

You're going to make me dig things up, aren't you? LOL. Luckily it was easy to go, "Hmm, pretty sure that was in February 2010" and find this (http://joeymichaels.livejournal.com/560460.html) (hopefully Joey doesn't mind me digging this up; he did leave it public). Check the date and then you can probably look up the relevant green rooms that instigated that meta post.

I'm not sure poetry is more acceptable this season. I think last season had more poetry in general. But the competition itself does change with each new group.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link, though I won't be able to read it until later. I love a good debate so long as I don't actually have to be involved in it. :p

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there's just been a lot more people with that same attitude this season and that's why we haven't had as many of these meta discussions as what last season got?

Admittedly I generally stuck to the sidelines and watched what everyone else said, too. When you click that link, you'll find I left a grand total of two comments on the entry, and they didn't have anything to do with the debate XD

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

The preference is for it to be balanced. I have no interest in running a purely fiction competition.

That said, I have no interest running something that's all non-fiction either, but that's never really come up. So it's usually said the other way. :)

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

OMG I think I said something very similar to this in one of my comments :P

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

You're sharing a brain with Gary??? Oh you poor dear.

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

It's the scariest thing I've ever discovered!

[momebie.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Also, it's really interesting to see the ways in which the fiction comments on the non-fiction and vice versa.