Green Room - Week 4 - Day 2

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Good morning Green Room!

Last night I went to see Jonathan Richman. Note to GR, if you don't know who I am talking about, become familiar with who I am talking about. Seriously, the man is hugely influential over the last 40 or so years of rock music...

One of the things that people note when they are seeing him is his sincerity. It pours out of every word and each look that he gives people. He's talking about his life, and the way he looks at the world, even when it's telling "someone else's story".

Which is important, because if your writing isn't about you, if it isn't telling something about who you are and how you see the world - what is it doing? You can say "Telling an interesting story", but what you find interesting *is* about you... it's revealing.

The act of creating art/crafting a story/performing a song, is showing vulnerability to the world. It's showing something that is real/true, it is a piece of yourself that comes out in fiction as easily as it does in non-fiction, poetry, or hip-hop music!

Which is part of what makes Idol so interesting *to me*. Getting to see those slices of your lives, and what you choose to share with the rest of the world, and what slips out through the cracks.

***

Btw - there is a Second Chance Idol deadline this evening: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/620730.html

and a main competition deadline tomorrow: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/620811.html

Comments

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

I have, in past seasons, waxed lyrically about entries where they put the breaks just right! It just makes it come alive for me. Nothing like bad line breaks to bring an entry down. Far worse than any grammar mistakes for me.

And yeah, I am with you on more breaks than normal. Especially online, it brings an ease to reading I feel. It is a bit different on paper, at least for me. There longer paragraphs fit better.

How to explain how to do it though... the only thing I would say is to read the entry out loud, and note where you need to breathe, where you slow down or pause for emphasis. Also, any sentences that are especially cool should be show off. A paragraph is like a mini story, the beginning or end is so important!

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Flow is so heavily important to me, too, but i'm not sure what I'm doing. I just let my characters guide where those breaks and rhythms are. It just might be one of those things that can't be easily taught, because I'm still figuring out my way around it.

I'm also more fond of staccato sentence structure than longer, flowing sentences. I am very, very fond of the one sentence punchy paragraphs when I feel they have the most punch. Particularly at the end of a piece. It's become so common that it's hard for me to NOT end a section/chapter/piece that way. It's just how I roll. Oops.