The Gatekeepers

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Since the dawn of time, people have wondered “Who are these Gatekeepers anyway?”

It’s a fair question.

Although, to be as fair as that question, people haven’t actually been wondering that since the Dawn of Time. It just sometimes feels that way. It’s only been since Monday!

There was someone coming that had me quasi-jumping up and down. But they had to cancel at last minute. I probably would have been the only one jumping. They have promised to do something for us in the near future though, so I’ll hold off on announcing it now. But, man, that is going to be cool.

Instead, we get a bunch of hacks... oh wait, no we don’t!

We get the largest group of Gatekeepers ever assembled, with tastes that roam all over the place. It’s an absolutely top-notch group of people. I couldn’t have been happier that they agreed to do this favor for Idol.



And please don’t overlook that fact. This is a group of people who took the time out of their lives and schedules. Regardless of the outcome, this is great thing that they have done for us, and I (and I hope you) are very appreciative of the time and thoughtfulness that they gave to this task.

Their backgrounds, and tastes, made for some unexpected, and extremely close results. (Coming later).
I’ll give you a hint though. One of them asked me if I could tell her if there were any unanimous results. Because sometimes, there can be. *Not this time*.

Which, I think speaks highly of the contestants that we have assembled here.It was repeated by nearly everyone that I talked to, about what a talented group of people you are, and how difficult the task of deciding was.

So, without any more of me muttering under my breath, your Gatekeepers:

Season 6 Winner and Someone who is apparently “out saving the world” beautyofgrey

Season 7 Winner, who was able to turn her Idol experience into a blogging job for Woman’s Day: http://www.womansday.com/sex-relationships/divorce-diaries/ amenquohi!
(Note: she also has a second blog at : http://www.singlemomtism.com, which will be where her fans can find out details as they develop on her upcoming book!

I’m still amazed that we got him, and I hope that he shares some of his insights in various entries, someone who came out of the same fanfic communities that I did, and one of my personal favorite writers, professional or otherwise. Formerly known on LJ as physican, even though he doesn’t use it anymore - “Doc” (as he is known) is literally out there doing life changing work. I’m hoping that the taste of new writers willl get him back to changing lives with his amazing noir some point in the very near future!

New to LJ, she came on specifically to read Idol entries with well over a decade involved in technical writing professionally, and a strong creative writing background, one of the most brilliantly talented people I have ever met heartsparkradio

Next we have someone who has never actually been involved in LJ Idol, but is well versed in it. Anyone who was involved in Idol over the past couple seasons will know and love her work as the mad skills behind that slouch who knows kittymichaels, so her eye for talent is obviously quite high - the one, and only sharya

Known as “Bookish” online, she describes herself as a “librarian and voracious
reader” with a blog at http://www.bookishdesi.wordpress.com - is way too modest about her background and experience. So I won’t go into it, but I’ll leave it at “extremely honored to have her here”.

oneonthefence should be a household name in Idol homes. For those who don’t know her, she has some videos (includng the one she recorded tonight, right after sending in her votes and oh, yeah, going to ER! ) that will be under her name on youtube. She is also working on second manuscript and should have another screenplay out in April.

Another name that if you don’t know - you need to go back and get familiar with from several seasons back, the legendary mme_furiosa (who didn’t give me anything to pimp for her, but seriously, find her stuff!!!)

What I said for the last two, goes triple for this one. Long time Idol fans are going to be extremely happy to know that you can find her blogging at http://snugglebubby.com - the LJer formerly known as gypsy_moon

cacophonesque probably needs no introduction to most of you. But here’s her Etsy, because most people only know her writing, not her other talents: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SometimesInspiredCo

I think, I covered the ones people might not know off the top of their heads and/or had specific items to mention. The “rest” hardly qualify as that. It’s a shockingly talented group of people, that if you involved this season, you know and love! If for some reason, you missed them, you need to go back and enjoy!

Please welcome back to the stage, the talented and often opinionated:

createdestiny
superhappytime (he of the 100 Weeks Club!)
joyfulfeather
annaonthemoon
hosticle_fifer
talonkarrde88 (the King of Last Minute appearances)
zeitgeistic
and last, and no one near least, someone who brings an unique perspective everywhere he goes, the one and only zhent!

(if I left out a plug for someone, somewhere I apologize - send me an email and I’ll correct that!)


Thank you to all of the Gatekeepers for all of your hard work!

Comments

[talon.livejournal.com]

I waited until it was over to leave my usual few comments (and have a few left to post) but I'm willing to discuss any entry specifically. Feel free to PM me!

[hosticle-fifer.livejournal.com]

Being a gatekeeper is hard work! Normally when I vote, I just go with my gut, but I felt more responsibility on this one. I tried to give everyone a fair shake. I wouldn't let myself write an entry off without reading the whole thing first, so there was a LOT of reading and deliberation going on!

Can I give one piece of universal concrit, to everyone? Nobody in particular pointed out.

People.

People.

I'm begging you.

Get my attention. Within a couple sentences.

I read so many entries that would go on to be interesting, but which I was sure I wouldn't be voting for at first. If you meander for 2-6 paragraphs before getting to the damn point, it's an uphill battle to regain your audience. This is not just me, as a (now former) gatekeeper sitting on my palanquin and demanding amusement. I think anyone would tell you the same thing.

It's the same advice I'd give you in a fight. Hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast, don't give 'em a chance to react. Don't talk, punch. Then finish strong. Leave them with something to think about.

If you do these two things, you can faff about in the middle as much as you like.

There were some great entries this week, good job all around. It was murder trying to avoid commenting as much as I could, because there were more than one pats on the back to go around.

[sharya.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the grab-my-attention thing was pretty high on my list of criteria as well.

[heykatie.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying this! I felt EXACTLY the same way. It is soooo important to start out strong. If I hadn't been a gatekeeper and required to read them all, I probably would have given up on a couple of them after the first few lines. And then I would have missed some real gems!

[amenquohi.livejournal.com]

A hearty AMEN to this comment. While I would never for a minute tell you how long your entry should be - because it should be exactly as long as it takes to do what it needs to do - it really ought to start doing it (whatever it is) as soon as possible right out of the gate.

I am an absolute sucker for a good, grabbing opening line or an off-balance situation that you drop me into in the first paragraph.

[zhent.livejournal.com]

Yes! This! Grab my attention, then you wan wander about a bit if you like before finishing strong. A weak introduction with meandering about before getting to the point makes getting to the best part harder and sinks your entry...

[oneonthefence.livejournal.com]

I absolutely and fully agree with this. Anything trite or uninteresting in the first paragraph was an immediate no-no in my book. I wanted to be punched in the face by a good, solid story, and that story needs a good, solid start.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Oh, neat-- these were some of my favorite authors this round, and they were gone too soon.

I see you found other ways to use their talents!

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Thanks guys, that was a phenomenal amount of work you had to put in. And thanks to you, too, Gary, for organising it and compiling all those results!

[vaudy.livejournal.com]

Holding myself back from the results just long enough to add my thanks to the Gatekeepers for their hard work! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check and see if I need to start cursing you. ;)

[jacq22.livejournal.com]

Thank you all, a difficult task I am sure, I respect all of them, but was pleased to see some names I knew.

Gary you too are awesome, have some parcelled entrails for you, but think posting may be tricky.

[mstrobel.livejournal.com]

Dude, it's like you got together all the cool kids! I wanna be a gatekeeper too one day! :D

[heykatie.livejournal.com]

I am so honoured to have been asked to be a Gatekeeper this season. The entries were amazing, and I was pleased to be able to offer an opinion on them. It was REALLY difficult not commenting!!

Thank you Gary for asking me. And thank you to all the great writers who shared some fabulous writing. :)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I felt so honoured to be asked to participate - particularly since I shot myself in the foot by forgetting an entry a few weeks back! This was hard work and I didn't even get a chance to write my own home game entry!

Surprisingly, I found myself liking/voting for entries about things I didn't think I would be interested in!

[amenquohi.livejournal.com]

There is an ENORMOUS amount of talent here! I was having a really hard time because (a)I wanted to comment soverybadly, and (b)my list kept getting longer and longer. Ultimately, if I put you on that list it's because you had me in the first couple of paragraphs, you put your own voice very strongly into what you wrote, you weren't so incredibly long that I kept scrolling down and thinking "how much longer is this?" (because, believe me, it does come into play if you're taking too long to build and anything that takes your reader's focus away like that can be a deciding factor), and there was something unique, gut punching, funny, creepy or [insert strong descriptive adjective here] about your story.

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic group of gate keepers! Thank you for reading the entries and thanks to all who voted for mine.

[sarcasmoqueen.livejournal.com]

Thanks Gatekeepers! Kudos to you all for taking on this monumental task!

[zhent.livejournal.com]

I know I'm late to the party...

So for those interested, here's what made or broke a post for me as gatekeeper (http://zhent.livejournal.com/823659.html).

I will say I was tough. It took a lot to impress me and get a vote...

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

Adding my voice to the chorus of thanks for the Gatekeepers! I'm sure it wasn't easy in many ways, and your hard work is very much appreciated!

[oneonthefence.livejournal.com]

It was great to be asked to be a Gatekeeper, and I was honored - despite having only 24 hours to read everything thoroughly and vote. But I was happy to step in, and there is an enormous amount of talent here.

If anyone wants feedback, I'll be happy to give it - in a week or so, when I can use my left arm again. I dislocated my shoulder, so I did a lot of reading and list-making via an ER bed yesterday. And one-handed typing is slowing me down, obviously. However, I'll be more than happy to give concrit soon!

[mac-arthur-park.livejournal.com]

Thanks, y'all. :)

[kittymichaels.livejournal.com]

MY NAME MY NAME I LOVE SEEING MY NAME

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

I don't know if anyone will see this here, but I've put up some of my gatekeeper thoughts (http://joyfulfeather.livejournal.com/1064880.html) for anyone who's curious about how I chose who to vote for and such.