Green Room - Week 36 - Day 5

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

In life, there are always going to be things that people tell you that you can’t do. So, it’s no surprise that you will see the same said about writing. It makes even more sense that people start telling themselves the same thing - anywhere from just the “I can’t do this!” to the more elaborate “that’s pointless and cruel”.. completely ignoring that people do it all the time. You get deadlines that seem completely impossible.

You get them, and you either rise to the challenge, or decide that you need to fold.

Some people can do it, and some can’t. It doesn’t say anything other than certain personality types adapt better to pressure than others - and some people thrive under stress that would completely collapse other people.

Over the years, I’ve seen a few people’s tempers (and better judgments) snap under the weight of “Hell Week”. I’ve also seen far more end up finding something pretty darn special about themselves, and their fellow competitors through the process.

I hope to see that happen again this season with it. All *insert evil laughs here*, I wouldn’t be giving anyone something that I didn’t have the full faith that they can handle, and be pleasantly surprised at the results once they get the chance step back from it.

For whatever it’s worth, I’m proud of what you have done - and the progress on the hill you are currently climbing! You deserve to be remembered among the “best of the best”, and I hope this will be a part of that Idol legacy!

The new topics are up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/593207.html
the Work Room: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/591795.html
and the Home Game thread: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/592005.html
The last two are the same, because it’s still Week 36!

I hope everyone takes the time to read, and comment, the Part A section of the entries: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/591554.html
Because there is a lot of good stuff there!

Comments

FRIST!

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I'm *DEAD* to me!!!

PS: With my life being as crazy as it is this week, I am glad I'm one of the Eliminati right now.

Re: FRIST!

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

If you don't see the fnords they can't hurt you.

Re: FRIST!

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

Your cookie is in this post. I'm not kidding.

http://n3m3sis42.livejournal.com/1122655.html

Re: FRIST!

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

FRIST!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad I'm an Eliminati too right now :D

Re: FRIST!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never made it to Hell Week in my 5 seasons of playing, but sometimes that's a blessing, lol!

I like the term "Eliminati." - I wonder if someone can make an icon of that for me?

Re: FRIST!

[alien-infinity.livejournal.com]

FRIST!

I'm also one of the Eliminati, but I'm senseless enough to try and write ALL THE ENTRIES anyway.

Re: FRIST!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Hey look - I amended an icon! :) You're welcome to use it.

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I'm flailing a bit right now to be honest :P

This is tough with a full-time job and a still needy dog who I can't simply neglect. I can only imagine what those with kids on top of it all must feel like.

I'd say you're cruel, Gary, but you'd just take that as a compliment.

Well, I better try to write at least one more entry before bed. Though I should be heading to bed now, I doubt I'll get much sleep over the next few days just to make the deadline in time!


Though I should add, I was mega-proud of myself for getting 6 entries in by today as it was. So when (and not if) I make this, I know it'll feel awesome.

I just struggle with trying to not spend all day perfecting a piece when I have 4 others that need to be written.

[alien-infinity.livejournal.com]

I just struggle with trying to not spend all day perfecting a piece when I have 4 others that need to be written.

If it helps at all, I had someone say my Nostalgic was one of their favorites of mine, EVER, and I wrote that at the last minute at 3:30AM Monday with minimal time spend polishing it. So...you don't need to spend lots of time perfecting something for it to come out awesome?

Why do I often do my best work (apparently, anyway) when I'm either sleep deprived or awake at weird-as-fuck hours?

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

Full time job and kid here. Cruel doesn't even begin to cover it, ha. Not at all trying to top you in that, btw. I think this is hard times for all of us. I mean, who DIDN'T look at at "B" post and think
OH FUCK YOU GARY and then HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THIS.

Which is of course why I am playing in the GR instead of writing. But I did wake up to work on a story so there is that.

BTW, have some macros. I wrote them for A and they'll never get read now anyway, so enjoy:
http://n3m3sis42.livejournal.com/1122655.html

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

This is tough with a full-time job and a still needy dog who I can't simply neglect. I can only imagine what those with kids on top of it all must feel like.

Add "fulltime job with unpredictable hours" to that. I was thinking of Hell Week yesterday at work and wondering how the hell I'd handle all this if I were in the Top 10. I lucked out having two days off in the row this week (Wednesday and Thursday), but that doesn't happen every week. Doing those 6 entries this past weekend would've killed me because I work weekends!

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

“This is tough with a full-time job and a still needy dog who I can't simply neglect. I can only imagine what those with kids on top of it all must feel like.”

It may seem odd to people, on the surface, but if you look at how well Moms do, under those circumstances. They tend to excel at a higher rate than single people with “spare time”. The more kids, the better they seem to do.

That took me awhile to figure out, but the more people that I’ve talked to after the fact, the more I was able to see that these women were able to pull together the organizational skills to get the “impossible” accomplished. It’s part of their normal skill set, they just had to apply it!

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

“I'm actually finding that although I'm tired and burnt out and out of ideas, people are really helping me rise to the challenge. The amount of people invested in seeing me through this contest is humbling. I'm really grateful.”

Which makes a HUGE difference.

For all of the “You didn’t do that!” rhetoric – the point is that it “takes a village”. You need to have positive and encouraging people around you – the ones who come out, and invest in you – not the ones who tell you why you can’t, or shouldn’t do it…. That support, that belief, makes the it possible.

[alien-infinity.livejournal.com]

I'm in the Home Game, so I don't even HAVE to write for this Super Ultra Hell Week. I'm still going to try and do ALL THE ENTRIES, though. Now if only I had any ideas for them!

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I said I was going to do that, but see comment below. I even have some pretty good ideas.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I feel like one of those big flat rocks that soaks up the heat all day and then holds it long after the air has turned cool around it.

I

Can

Not

Get

Cool.

I read a few entries, but honestly, there will be no reading or writing until someone pours a dozen Sonic slushes on my head.

[alien-infinity.livejournal.com]

If it will help at all (probably not), here's an icon of a kitty in snow?

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

I have two new bits up today.
I am also about to go put up a question in my LJ. It is one I nearly always ask people I know.

[talon.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, Gary. This reminds me of when I used to do every entry in two hours ;)

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

Why couldn't it have been another Champions' Week instead? *stalkstalk*

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Greetings from the Minneapolis airport! WE CAN DO IT! WE CAN DO IT! Holler for beta if you need it, I'm on airplanes and in terminals the next 24 and have time :)

Gary, that was 'in' terminals, not 'terminal'. Don't get any ideas.

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

If I ever write anything that isn't macros or writing about writing I will take you up on that. My brain is pretty much gone.

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm here, so there's that. It's hard to want to rage quit after you just wrote 6 posts in 4 days, isn't it? Plus, we all saw that A and knew something evil was coming. Ugh. I have ideas for all 5. I'm starting on one now. I work at 8. Hopefully no one notices I'm writing when I'm supposed to be coding? They're the same, right?

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

At least you can sneak in writing at work. And you have access to a computer :p

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

I should get started. Because I'm definitely taking on this challenge for funsies.

And two other fanfic challenges that started yesterday. And one more that starts tomorrow.

I have too much free time, lol.

[alien-infinity.livejournal.com]

Because I'm definitely taking on this challenge for funsies.

Home Gamers doing all of Hell Week anyway UNITE! *\o/*

[medleymisty.livejournal.com]

I got out at the right time. :)

I'm trying to get back to my own writing, but I feel like I'm not any good at writing. And I don't mean that, like, in a I suck at writing and will never be good at it and should just stop way. I know that I have a decent base line, and that really I do write fairly well. I'm just...not measuring up to my own expectations at the moment.

So how are you guys all doing? Sorry I've kind of disappeared, but I needed to go be an introvert for a while and recharge and stuff.

*hugs* for those still in the game. Ya'll need 'em.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Recharge, baby, because when you're on, you're fucking good :)

response - Part the first

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I was asked to respond – so I will…
This was apparently comments to a post (by the person who forwarded it to me from friend/former SCIer:

I'm sure they are all wonderful (considering the circumstances) but I won't be reading them. Ever since he started assigning more than one topic each, I stopped reading completely.

People are going to make decisions about what they are and are not going to do with their available free time. I’m sure that the people putting their work out there aren’t going to be all smiles and bunnies knowing that someone is, sight unseen, saying that they won’t be reading their work – because more than 8 (now 7) entries a week to read is too much for someone’s schedule.
(I’ll go out on a limb and say that someone saying that probably wasn’t reading many of the entries earlier in the competition either. If there was a way to *make* someone do that, before voting, I would. But there isn’t. So, we just have to hope that they are reading before voting – otherwise everyone is losing out. It certainly doesn’t *help* anyone…)

But I’m sure they will understand. There are others who will be able to read, and comment to them.

I guess he figures this heats up the competition and all that but really what it does is put a serious strain on people's faculties and make an unfair pressure for people who have, you know, LIVES.

Lives that they are choosing to take some time out of it to participate. No one makes people compete. No one makes them stay.
They do it because they want to see it through to the end.

There are plenty of people who wish they were in a position to be writing multiple entries, this close to the finals!

It *does* heat up the competition, and takes away everything but sheer will power and a need to write. Friends list size can’t write the entries for you… popularity can’t write them… only someone bearing down and doing it can.


As a result, everyone's work will suffer and there's no way or reason I will want to read all those entries, much less more than one persons. I would have bowed out by now anyone just out of irritation. Writing isn't supposed to be something you do under the crunch just to fulfill a given topic.

A lot of professional writing IS exactly that. Finding a need and filling it as quickly and efficiently as you can.
Editors can be a superstitious and cowardly lot. If only there were a symbol to dress up as to frighten them… ;)

That'd be reporting and current events commentary.

Journaling? That part has me a little confused… unless it’s the debate between creative and technical writing and/or the fiction writing and journaling again.

I will stop before I start really ranting but honestly the whole "haha I'm giving you people so much you're all scrambling" is BULLSHIT in my mind. It does nothing to further creativity or writing skills. It just creates pressure. I think its pointless and cruel.

I think most people are onto the persona by now, and just go with it.
Pressure can create diamonds.
It can also make you crumble.
Hopefully more of the former and less of the latter.

Re: response - Part the second

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

oh and what I meant by "I don't want to read all those entries" is that aside from sheer volume (which is a consideration for those of us with lives to live) there is also the aspect of quality. I am happy to read rough drafts and raw work but I'm not going to read a bunch of stuff created under pressure just "to get it done"-

There are a number of people over the course of the season who have said that was exactly what their work was – they threw it together in the last couple of hours because they suddenly realized “I need to get something done!”

For every person pouring over their work for days on end – you get two that bang it out at speeds and talent-levels that leave you going “wha….”

I'd rather read soemthing that's been pored over, crafted with love and attention. I don't understand why he thinks giving multiple topics is so clever.

I don’t think it’s particularly “clever”, as much as it is needed. As you get closer to the end you either increase the number of entries or you decrease the time period. Or both.


If he wanted to push writing as a skill, he'd be giving exercises in RE-writing and RE-editing. maybe having writer make rough drafts then exchanges for finished product. Maybe assign writers randomly to edit someone elses work then follow whatever their editor said. Maybe giving everyone the beginning of a piece and telling them to finish it. There's tons of ways to pull creativity out of people but piling more work on them isn't one of those ways.

That sounds like LJ Writing Seminar/Work Shop Which is nice, and I’m sure helpful to many people - and there have been times when we’ve gotten a second pass at something. But the editing I leave up to the writers and their beta-readers.

For every “I don’t want to read multiple topics” there are a dozen people who really don’t want to read the same entry over and over again with various phases of edits.

I’ve found that “assigning random editors” doesn’t really help anything. Sure, in a professional setting, you’re not going to know the people who are editing your work, or their qualifications very well. But I think, at this stage, there is a lot to be said for making the decision to bring in a beta that you like, and trust. Getting to the point where you can say “I need help getting this right, and this is the person who can help me do that” is a huge step and a breakdown of the usual “artist ego”. Once you have that, getting further outside input and feedback is always a good thing, from people (and there are plenty of professional/semi-professional writers and editors involved with Idol!) willing to take the time to read the entries and give their insight.

Mostly though, as much as I hope people use the experience to become better writers, ultimately, it’s about the fun. Getting better at their craft, and personal growth, those are things that tend to happen as a natural part of participation and throwing yourself into the volcano of an experience, not as an “add-on” feature.

Once the stress is over, the smoke is cleared and one person is declared the winner – even if it’s not them, ESPECIALLY if it’s not them – my hope is that the contestants will end up saying, “I worked my ass off – but damn that was a good time!!!” The fact that so many of them do, and keep coming back, hopefully that means something.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I took ellakite's use of the word "Eliminati" to refer to those of us in the Home Game phase, and made an icon using the Season 8 base. Anyone who has been eliminated or dropped this season is welcome to make us of it (assuming that clauderainsrm approves of the icon). I thought it was a fun term, and much classier sounding than "home gamer." :)

If any of the Top 7 need a handy-dandy beta reader / editor (I'm sorry, I can't separate the two) feel free to email me at Pandria@aol.com.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I approve it retroactively.