Work Room - Week 33

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

It’s also interesting to watch debates cycle back around. It’s even more amusing to me to see them cycle back during the course of the same season!

On the subject of “pimping vs not pimping”, I am going to come out and do some recycling of my own - mainly, Idol’s position.

Which is, I don’t really care either way - but if you aren’t going to pimp yourself, please pimp Idol!

Why? Because there is a lot of great writing going on here, and new readers (and potential contestants) is what keeps this all happening!

We don’t, we can’t, exist in a vacuum. The more people who discover what is happening here - from you, the greater the chance that they will find someone else they love - and the greater the chance that someone else will send in someone who loves your stuff!

That’s how it works.

I don’t care if it’s a rec list, or simply a “go check everyone out!” - it’s all good, and more to the point, it’s all for the greater good! ;)

After all, part of being the winner tends to involve being the Ambassador of your Season of Idol. (Well, them and the Spirit) So, why not get started? :D

***

In other news - the new topics are up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/583847.html

So, you should probably get started on those!

Comments

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

I made it from "Food Memory" until last week without having to promote myself. Last week, I got scared and posted a voting link. I did tell my friends to check out the other posts, not just mine. This week, I didn't promote because I felt bad about doing it last week. Part of me feels like if I have to promote to stay in, I don't deserve to stay in.

The other part of me wants to stay in no matter what.

From here on out, I'm thinking about doing rec lists. We shall see.

So... Anyone want to see anything specific from me?

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I have a migraine... So I'll keep this short.

I like to put up rec lists when I can. I like telling people to read the stuff here. I don't like asking people to vote for me. I sometimes will if needed and I don't judge people that do what they have to do to stay in. If Gary says its legal, it's all good.

I've tried to be pro-Idol all season. I know I'm not the best writer here, but I'm here to get better. I remember coming in Season 6 and feeling like an outsider. There were the veteran favorites, the cliques, and I felt like a loser to be honest with you. So this season? I was going to make my goal about making the newbies feel good about being here, make the underdogs feel like someone noticed them. I've spent most of my life feeling invisible, and when someone (or several someones) in Idol noticed me, it felt nice. I've tried to validate others as I figure I'd like to be validated.

So I try to rec people so they feel good about what they wrote if it caught my eye. I like unique things, so I figure my lists would highlight different people than someone else and that way multiple people can have a moment of feeling good about themselves.

The happier people are here, the more it'll grow as people tell their friends about this awesome, friendly place.

My head hurts, so I hope this didn't sound all silly. The truth is... Idol has made me grow so much, I seriously love this place and I want to see it grow. I've met some seriously awesome people through here and I'm looking forward to meeting more :)

[alien-infinity.livejournal.com]

Hello, denizens of the Work Room! What would you like to see from me this week, if I may ask?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Gary, for a home game thread. I will write something this week to contribute. :)

I'm tired of the same old debates. I say next time the pimping debate comes up, people should be wearing purple polyester suits with big lapels, and have goldfish in their shoes. :)

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

The arguments pop up because they are classics.

I just like when someone adds a new wrinkle to them. It doesn't happen often, but keeps things entertaining. :)

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I like fiction a lot like you did last week. You do that very well. Maybe find a few photos like you did from your neighborhood and write up an alternate history type thing?

I really want to use a photo as inspiration now. You and everywordiwrite made it look fun :)

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

Any ideas how to take these topics? Especially "The Call That Never Came"? I mean... Besides the obvious?

Again, my brain hurts from a killer headache, so I'm sure I'll think of something... But I figured brainstorming could help us all?

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, instead of a phone call, it could be something like calling up troops or calling for reinforcements. Or maybe a "calling" as in your calling in life?

Sorry if these are dumb ideas. I'm really tired.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

::ignores impulse to make bad phone sex joke::

what?

could play with the kind of call:

call to arms
call of nature
call of the wild
call the question (my parlamentarian brain)
call to order ("")
call and response (my churchy brain)
call to the priesthood ("")
call of duty
don't call me late to supper
You don't have to call me darlin, darlin

ahem. sorry.

Call a game due to weather
Call a play - this is java's fault, this sports talk.
I'll see your raise and call (poker)
call (visit) a young lady
Call - theater - time to be there for rehearsal/show (memories of messy/decorative/bawdy call boards in my head)
Being "on call" for work

Then there's the obvious - Telephone calls and calling (yelling) to someone.

And now I have Blondie in my head.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Ooh, an official Home Game thread?!?

Thank you Gary!

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

oh wow. free association works. I just figured out what I'm going to write about for ensemble. :)

I don't want to give it away, but it's possible there will be talk of naked women in the woods. :)

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I'm in favor of goldfish shoes, personally.

This past week reminded me that I need to pay attention to my instincts, which told me that this past week's entry was probably too long and too cutesy.

So I guess the big question is, what can I do with "ensemble" and "the call that never came"? To me, "ensemble" means either a musical group or an outfit. I could have fun with either. "The call that never came" just strikes me as something that could be incredibly evocative. It could be about somebody who was waiting to be "called" to a profession. Or it could be about waiting for someone to call. I have to delve through my memories and see if anything springs up.

One of my problems is that I don't want to warm over the same stories again and again, even if this is a new season and people haven't heard them this time around. What are your thoughts on that?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in comments on this post, i listed a bunch of "calls" in a free-association response to Pixie's comment.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Oh damn, I got an idea for Ensemble that I can PROBABLY make work. I have an idea-ish for Call, but it may or may not work. About 95% of the time, if I ever get an idea for any prompt on the first day, the idea turns out to be either totally un-workable, or I get like a third of the way into it, think it's gonna be awesome, and then it blows up in my face all like KABOOM, SUCKA! None for you!

I've been trying really hard to do a better job wrangling my ideas into submission rather than letting them buck me off one at a time until I can hunt down a docile and malleable one, but it's a really difficult balance knowing when to kick an idea to the curb like the no-good cheatin armadillo bastard it is, and when to be all like "No, dammit! You are MY idea and we're going to do this shit MY way, so bend to my will or ELSE!"

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I found that the more you have to mangle an idea, the less it will mold itself into what you want it to do.

I let things marinate. I'll get an idea and I'll play with it in different ways. Sometimes an idea sticks. Sometimes it doesn't. If it's the latter, then I chalk it up to an idea that's not yet ready for prime time.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, as for The Great Pimp Debate -

I'm competing under a "fake" journal, and a lot of my f'list has no clue I'm even doing Idol. I've been pretty open about it with my Potter fandom friends, and I'll freely post\admit my "real" journal on Idol, but I'm MAJORLY gun shy about linking the other way round and posting my Idol identity on my regular page. Like, if some of the peeps on my f'list (or worse, my facebook, eek!) were watching me here, I'd get so freaked out and writer-blocked I'd be dead in the water.

But, that's my personal issue, not everyone else's problem.

On the actual ethics of pimping and all that jazz - I'm of two minds. On one hand, I tend to come at pretty much anything - ESPECIALLY competitions - from a "do whatever the fuck it takes and THEN some" mindset, but that's probably because I'm a dirty Slytherin fairly competitive person. On the other hand, false criteria frustrate me. Like, if I show up at a dance contest, expecting to be judged on my dance moves, and then I get told "well, dance moves are part of it, but the main criteria is how big your tits are" chances are I'm gonna be just like *headdesk.* Not that I think there's anything wrong with a big tit contest, but I'm not going to be winning one of those anytime soon, so I'd get moderately annoyed if I inadvertently signed up for a boob-a-thon thinking it was a dance-off. And it'd suck even worse if I got voted out for my boob size and couldn't tell whether I lost for being a shitty dancer, or whether my dance moves were sufficiently fly, but my membership in the Itty Bitty Titty Committee was what actually did me in. Same thing here with Idol. I'm grateful as hell for votes no matter WHERE they come from, but I also don't know what's based on my own skill\abilities, and what's based on my proverbial BFF Jill telling people to vote for me. So part of me is sitting here all like "okay, well, I came into this blind and undercover, and despite not pimping myself, I'm still here, so I must have *some* good moves!" and the other part of me is just like "it's been 8 months and I STILL have no idea WTF I'm even being judged on, and it'd really suck to pour a ton of time and energy into this for nearly an entire year just to have the axe fall on me because my LJ penis isn't big enough"...or more specifically "it'd suck to have the axe fall on me because my LJ penis isn't big enough, and then I end up taking it as a reflection on my writing and drive myself bonkers trying to figure out what I did wrong."

But hey, guess what. This *isn't* a straight-up writing competition, it's a reality TV show in which Gary feeds on our cries of anguish and pain, and *everyone* knows that going in, or at least they know the "not a straight-up writing competition" bit if they read the userinfo on the front page. So while I think a lot of us might have our moments of "GODDAMMIT, I spent two solid days chained to my computer creating a masterpiece and I'm lagging in the polls, but so-and-so over there posted an ASCII art butt and now *they've* got a million votes, so what the fuck GIVES?!"...in the end, we signed up for a roller coaster with the brakes taken off and...well...ask and ye shall receive. We're all gonna curse from time to time, but I think if we start *truly* cursing the things that make Idol unpredictable, we're cursing the very things that make it fun and addictive and different from every other boring-ass writing competition on the face of the damn planet.

(Please note, the middle paragraph of the above was a totally ridiculous and completely fictitious metaphor with no basis in reality whatsoever. As anyone who's been to a club with me will readily attest, I have small tits AND bad dance moves.)

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll start pimping. I haven't done that all season.

[alleyalligator.livejournal.com]

As a publisher, I just want to throw something else into the mix.

People these days are very reluctant to sign writers who are unwilling to self promote. Even with the big companies, we are now in an age where you need to be willing to say to people "hey, my writing's great and worth supporting." The difference in sales between my authors who promote and the ones who don't is massive - and my publisher has told me she will no longer put out books by people who don't promote themselves.

So I get that it's a writing contest. I get that people want to see how they can cut it in the Idolverse by relying on writing alone. But if you want to look at Idol as preparation for seeing how your writing does in the real world, it doesn't matter how beautifully you craft your words. If you don't tell people they're there, nobody will come and read them.

Also, just because people say something in public doesn't mean it's reflective of what they're doing in private. With the advent of FB voting, it's more than possible to promote yourself in the polls without anyone in Idol knowing what you're doing. What I haven't liked about this season is how underground things have gone. So much has been discussed in emails or outside of Idol that it's very different to the days of people openly complaining about those darned pimpers. And personally, I've never seen anything wrong with pimping anyway, other than sometimes you annoy people if you ask for their support to often. Certainly it would be an interesting experiment to put two books of your own work out, both equally well written, one promoted by yourself, one just left to be bought by whoever finds it. Which do you think would do better?

By this stage it's all about tactics. Everyone left can write and write well to a point that it's personal taste that will dictate who individuals would rank them now. Pimping is not a bad thing. Getting anywhere in the world requires a certain element of self promotion.

[sarcasmoqueen.livejournal.com]

Y'all have inspired me to home game this week. Any suggestions/requests?

With regards to "pimping", I will admit that just about every week, I did it in my journal. However, I don't have a very large friends list, and I don't think any of them aside from my LJI readers paid any attention to my requests, so I don't think it made any difference for me. I could be wrong, though, maybe my friends told all of their freinds to vote, and so on. They just never told me one way or the other whether they were voting or reading.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

I pimp.

I'm a big ol' pimp. I want my friends to love my work and say how awesome I am.

But I limit my pimping because I don't want my friends to be sick of my writing, and I want to win votes on good work and not on obligations of friendship. My friend voting for a piece that wasn't good (or good for them) would be a lie.

I'm lucky that I travel so much I have a new group of people around me most weeks - I bore the shit out of my friends by forcing them to listen to me read my piece over the appetizers while they drink beer, or drag them to open mic night, and then I say, "If you want to vote for me or check out some of the other entries, go here." They're polite enough to listen, awesome enough to give feedback and help me get better, and we generally have some cool conversations about at least some of the other pieces. Even better, they get invested in the rest of you hippies and want to know how you're doing in the polls, and if there's someone lagging that they like, they get their asses in there and vote for them, too.

Sometimes it backfires a little - someone I like may be lagging, but my friends like another one better than the one I pimped to them on purpose and vote for that one instead.

One of the coolest things about LJ Idol is pulling up contest pieces on my phone and reading a whole lot of different writers' pieces to my co-workers when we're on an all-day drive - they always want to know what the person wrote last week, too. We have some great chats about different takes on the topic and different writers' styles, and I LOVE finding a piece where I go, "Shit! I have to read this to you all right now!!" and we turn off the radio and pass around the phone or the computer and listen to something amazing.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

you are made of awesome, and so is this comment.

Writerly question for the class

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

How do you decide whether you're just blocked on a project you've been writing vs it is actually made of suck?

Does the amount of time and grey matter you've already sunk into the thing factor into the equation?

What if you step away from it and come back a couple of months later and you're still stuck on the same things?

Does the fact that you keep opening the file mean you should keep going, or might that just be a habit?

If you do put it away "for good," do the characters still live in your head?

Re: Writerly question for the class

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Did you just post this? (it's almost 4:45AM here)