Green Room - Week 6 - Weekend Edition

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

What goes through your brain when you see the topics posted: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/666309.html

is it "which one can I shoe-horn what I was going to write regardless?" Is it staring at them endlessly to see where the spark is going to catch, to light your creative brain on fire?

What happens on those weeks where you just hit a brick wall? Do you go over it? Dig under? Around? Or do you get a good running start and lean in with your shoulder to try to break through it?

Comments

[medleymisty.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I deserve to answer this anymore, but I will anyway.

I look at the topics, if there are multiple choices one will usually instantly call to me and say "Pick me pick me!", and generally by the time I get home from work the day after the topics are posted I will have a basic idea.

I have to say that when I looked at this week's topics, out of reach immediately hit me. Because Vasoline by Stone Temple Pilots is a Seth song, and the chorus goes "going blind, out of reach, somewhere in the vasoline".

So yeah, you could have had a Seth story this week.

Eh, you still might - my plan for this weekend is to finish the first chapter of a new Sims story that, of course, features Seth. ;)

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

Now I have that song stuck in my head! Not a bad thing at all.

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

Depends on the week.

Sometimes it's, "Idea! Oh, but I don't think that'll work as an entry..." but then it's what I come back to anyway.

Sometimes it's, "Gah, I don't know. There's a lot here, and I'll get the right one sometime before the deadline." Like now.

[michikatinski.livejournal.com]

I'm with you! The topics this week are all interesting, which means I haven't narrowed them down, which means this week will probably be tougher for me than last week. So I'm letting them percolate--not panicking yet. :)

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

When it's a singular topic and I don't have an immediate inkling of an idea, I do several things.

If it's a singular word, I look up the definition and synonyms. If something strikes me, I go from there.

If it's a phrase, I look up the phrase -- wiki it, etc. Sometimes this helps spark an idea, too. Or at least, it'll give me a better idea of what it means and how I might twist it to my advantage.

A lot of the time, I find an immediate topic connection, but I think the idea is too ordinary/will be a popular take on the topic. Those ideas get immediately vetoed, and I move on to something else.

With multiple topics, I pick the one that speaks to me the most. All of this week's spoke to me, but Cards on the Table spoke loudest, considering the things that are going on in my life right now. I feel that it may be the obvious connection this week for that topic, but when my fingers refuse to write in general, I had to pick and write what wrote itself in my brain. I feel like next week I'm going to struggle even harder, but at least I got an entry out of me, this week.

[alyce wilson (from livejournal.com)]

I also discard approaches I think will be too common, unless I really think I can do it and still stand out. Last week is a case in point: initially, I resisted the "share a picture of myself in tacky clothes" approach for "It's Not Tacky if You Wear it Well." But that idea wouldn't leave me alone: I kept thinking of pictures I wanted to talk about. Plus, I had a headache, dinner to cook and a toddler wanting to play with me, so I went ahead and wrote it.

I also like to do Google searches to find connections, but mostly I get out of the house. My best ideas come while I'm in movement, probably because I stop thinking so hard and let the ideas in. It's sort of Zen.

[lapis-lazuli615.livejournal.com]

Staring endlessly to see what will come to me is the one that happens most often. If nothing comes to me, I have a couple of friends that I toss the topics at and see what sparks in their brains. (I keep a file of the ideas we come up with together, too, so I can go back and see if any of those fit the new topic if I'm really stuck.)

Sometimes, I just have the first sentence when I start writing. Sometimes I have the end in mind. Somtimes, I just sit down and put my fingers to the keyboard. Once I start, it comes. It's not always my best work that way, but it's the majority of my writing.

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

Generally, I stare at the topics (mentally, really) until I come up with something. When we have multiple options like we keep getting this mini-season, I can often discard one or two right off the bat. That helps. I've found the last couple weeks that talking to a friend about them helps me come up with something. (Of course, since I've nearly gotten voted out the last couple weeks, maybe I shouldn't do that anymore...)

Currently I have no idea what to do for the topics this week. I think the general griping about the too-specific topics of past weeks might be coming back to bite us, or at least me -- the ones this time are so open-ended it's hard to get a quick spark of an idea! But that's the whole fun of Idol: the challenge of coming up with something interesting and unique from the topics, whether they're weird and narrow or common and totally open.

[alien-writings.livejournal.com]

I'm not even playing this mini-season, but maybe I can answer this? My method? It involves a lot of flailing, often. I do sometimes "wait" on my brain to come up with something, if something doesn't immediately strike me. Sometimes, something does immediately strike me, but, like theun4givables, I'll veto the idea for being too ordinary or too likely to be popular. With "Ultra Deep Field," for example, I purposely made myself avoid anything space-related, because I knew that subject area would be super popular.

Sometimes, I'll fight an idea that's speaking to me, not because it's cliche, but because I just don't like it for whatever reason. I MUCH prefer writing fiction, so when nonfiction ideas are all "write meeeeeeee!" I'll be like "waah, I don't wannaaaaaaa." And then sometimes write them anyway, if nothing fictional presents itself. (Like with, heh, "Ultra Deep Field.") If we're going to use a metaphor for when that happens, I guess it's like the brick wall wants to be friends, and I eventually surrender and make friends with the brick wall. (I haven't had enough coffee yet to make GOOD metaphors.)

In coming up with topic ideas, friends can being invaluable. I've brainstormed many a time, and I still remember when a fellow Idoler encouraged me to go way outside my comfort zone during "The Weak Force." With that infamous topic, I had an out-of-nowhere idea that was WILDLY different from my usual. My idea kept bugging me enough to share it with my friend, but I was like "I can't write this." And she was like "that's great, you gotta write it." I did write it, and it was AWESOME.

With multiple topics (in Idol as in elsewhere), I go with the one that speaks to me the most, I think.

During Season 8, I was heavily into serials. This meant that I would often try to find some way to make the topic fit into the universe I was working on, while making sure my idea would be accessible to people who hadn't read the previous week's story.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

I remember that! And I'm so glad you went ahead and wrote\posted it. It was a *really* strong piece, and a huge stand-out that week.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

I hope for a magic attachment that just *works*. Barring that I think on them all and what's going on or topics of interest to me to see if one catches.

Sometimes I just start writing on them all to see which is the least drech and see which one is salvageable for an entry.

The week of Shadow Children I wrote out two full poems to at least 2nd draft before realizing the other one (If Wishes Were Horses) wasn't cutting it.

This week I immediately found a topic I can write on, but it might just be too personal so I may have to try out a few others still.

I haven't yet had a topic in mind that I wanted to get across and tried shoe-horning.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Hey! Sorry not to be too participatory this week, I've been at writer camp and really focusing on generating new work this week. More on hitting the wall in my next comment. But - I had an interesting thought in response to another writer who is currently dealing with issues of whether their work is good or not, whether they can find a home for the work, whether they should just write for fun, or for a small niche, or let it go entirely.

Talking about similar issues with my class, we've realized that it's pretty normal as an artist to struggle with conflicting feelings of:

1) I AM SO AWESOME AND AMAZING MY WORK IS HOT SHIT AND EVERYONE LOOOOOOOOVES ME!

and

2) Boy. That sucked. Maybe I'll never make anything good again. Maybe I never actually made anything good to start with, and all those people were just lying to make me feel better.

(the above should be read as if it is in a very small, grey font)

On the inside of our heads, those feel like very special and unique feels that make us completely unique and different from anyone else who has ever made art. In fact, those are feelings that every artist struggles with, that are almost boring in their sameness to all the people who are not currently us experiencing them right now.

So. How can we deal with these feelings, that can be paralyzing in terms of moving forward with our work?

1) We're not alone. Unless we are ignoring everyone else around us while we whine about our own lives, we should be catching on that we're not the only person having these feelings. In fact, we're not even the only person having these feelings *right now*. We can embrace the validity and commonality of our artist feelings. We can recognize that self-doubt goes hand in hand with artistic achievement, and in fact, self-doubt is necessary in order for us to be ready to learn new things about our own work and how we do it. If we already thought our work was perfect, it would be difficult to learn.

2) It can be worthwhile to think seriously about what we want from our work, and set some specific goals that we can measure that tell us whether we are achieving what we want. Sadly, there is no teacher any more to hand out grades and give us shiny stickers. So we have to decide ourselves, what am I doing here? How will I give myself a check-plus when I get it right?

"I want to write a piece that receives comments where people feel like their own situation has been illuminated. My satisfaction will be the comments themselves."

"I want to self-publish a book. I'll know I did it because I'll hold it in my hand."

"I want to send out five query letters each month. Rejections are the proof I did my job."

"I want to write four non-fiction essays this year. I want to be happy with one, have two worth revising, and one that was practice and goes in a drawer."

"I want to improve my characterization. I'll know I've done this because when I read work by other writers who I admire, I'll recognize similar techniques to those I'm using."

Where we can feel most powerless is artists is in the range of choice available to us. What can be most frightening is how responsible we, ourselves, must be for our feelings and our process. It can be terrifying to realize that no-one else is going to--we must give ourselves permission to do the work we want to do, and validate ourselves for the achievements that are most necessary for our own work.

Honestly, it's OK to wallow. It's OK to feel shitty about our craft, our work, or our publication record. But we have to recognize that the freedom to wallow (there's no Writer Boss to say, "break's over!") also means the freedom to pull up our big girl pants and move forward with what we've decided we want to do.

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

Wow. I just made a post the other day being woeful about my writing quality and current lack of writing, and wondering if I should even bother trying to write at all. And the advice I got was very similar to what you just said. The universe is being awesome right now. The more I see this, the better I feel. Thank you. <3

Hitting the Wall

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

I hit a wall yesterday on a prompt for my writing class. I had an essay that wasn't working - we wrote a response to an essay on coming back as an animal, and we all wrote 500 words on "coming back" as something.

The initial essay was OK - I knew I wanted to do skunks, it was fascinating to read Wikipedia about them and I learned a lot by watching a documentary. I wrote a first draft that came together pretty well, On Coming Back To A Skunk, with the idea that the ex is trying to return to someone who is giving him a warning to stay away, with myself as the narrator giving the warning.

I read it to my teacher. It didn't have enough context to work. My use of italics to denote interior thought was inconsistent. The title sucked.

So, cut to yesterday afternoon. I have TWO HOURS in which I can write and then I have to be at a public reading.

I don't know where to start. First, I waste a whole hour by dicking around on the internet, not knowing what the hell I'm going to write.

I ask a FB friend about skunks and relationships and get a good new idea, which I promptly write into the piece in all caps. Nothing happens.

I toy with the idea of rewriting the whole thing by hand and seeing if that shakes anything loose. The ex in question, whom I have not spoken with in several weeks (and prior to that, in several years) BEGINS TEXTING ME RIGHT THAT MINUTE.

Now it's 45 minutes before the reading.

I start crying. Clearly, I am a loser. I will have to show up for class tomorrow with nothing. Everyone will know my first four days were a fluke. The teacher will rescind his offer that I should come check out the PhD. The teaching assistant will say, "You know, our journal is actually closed to submissions right now," and she'll hope I forget to send my work later.

So I call my writer buddy and whine. She is gently cheerful. She says, "so what else can you work on?"

I spend the last 30 minutes with my earphones in and a song jacked up on repeat, writing a new essay, on a different prompt from class, that I have some freewriting on in my journal.

That one worked.

I'll come back to the skunks.

MORAL: Always have a couple of projects going, so that you can work on something else in case one piece isn't coming.

ALSO: Have a buddy who is also a writer and "gets it" so that someone can talk you off the ledge.

AND: Turn off your goddamn phone when you're writing. Jesus, people, we should know this one.

Re: Hitting the Wall

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Yay for getting unstuck!

I love that you pass along the "real" to everyone, so we can remember that "Riting iz hard" sometimes, and do it anyway. :)

You should post this on your LJ, or fold it into a bigger post.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

I've got a small stockpile of Potentially Useful Idol Ideas stored in the back of my brain - for the most part, they're stuff that either 1) was something I wanted\tried to do in the past, couldn't get it to come together, but didn't want to completely trash the idea, so I figured I'd try again next time an appropriate prompt came around, or 2) I thought would be a fun thing to do "at some unspecified point in the future", so I just sorta back-burnered it until an appropriate prompt aligned with appropriate inspiration. One of the topics this week hardcore tweaked an idea from Category 2, so we'll see how that pans out.

When nothing in my stockpile works for a prompt and nothing immediately comes to mind, I usually take the prompt itself (or various words from it if it's a multi-word prompt) and think of other ways those words can be interpreted. For example, last week's "it's not tacky if you wear it well" - okay, so the obvious angle there was "fashion disaster", but 1) it was *too* obvious, and 2) I'd just done a fashion disaster themed entry two weeks ago and didn't want to post an entry that'd blatantly belong in the file of redundancy file. Buuuttt...tacky can also be applied to inappropriate behavior or bad manners, and wear can have the context of "wear and tear" as opposed to just meaning "to adorn oneself." So now instead of bad fashion, we've got repeated instances of bad manners that wear people out, and suddenly, a lightbulb comes on.

Of course, I got lucky that week, and there isn't always a lightbulb. Sometimes there's a dull flicker and then the ambient buzz of electricity (sans any useful illumination), sometimes the power's out completely, and sometimes, I just electrocute myself, which usually takes the form of "oh FUCK, I thought I had this great idea, and I started to work on it, but it totally fizzled, and now the deadline's in an hour and SHIT." That's when I panic, wing it, and pray. After Season 8, I swore up and down I'd have a "IDGAF how blocked or panicked you are, post a dirty haiku and an ASCII art butt if that's all you can think of, but you're not allowed to freeze up and choke under *any* circumstances" policy for myself. So, I think my first course of action with a brick wall is to spraypaint graffiti on it, and failing that, I'm definitely the "use my shoulder as a battering ram" type. Even if powering through the wall with something awesome as opposed to just lamely ricocheting off it with a weak-ass, shoehorn-topic, hail-mary entry is a longshot, it's still better odds than just staring at the wall in horror and doing nothing.

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

It really depends on the week. I might stare at the topics for awhile and then a light bulb might go off. However, that hasn't happened lately.

I usually just wait for an idea to hit me randomly.the I'll mull over everything and hope that something comes out of it. This week I tried brainstorming and it gave me a basic idea. I just don't know if it's going in direction I want.

[tatdatcm.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm "flying by the seat of my pants" a lot when the topics are posted. Usually one or two will spark a thought or I'll Google them and see what turns up.

A lot of times, I'll have one topic that will apply to non-fiction and one that gives me a great idea for fiction and I'll have to make the choice between which I'd rather share that week.

This week is really one where I've hit a wall, pretty much for the first time since I started at Idol. My initial response has been to walk away and give it time. I've been able to rule out one topic and have a few ideas for the others, I'm just not sure yet if they'll pan out.

I hate waiting till the last minute too. I like to have at least a night to "sleep on it" before I post my entry.

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

I just got an image of a white whiskered old prospector panning for little yellow letters.

[i-love-freddie.livejournal.com]

Well, this is how I generally work:

- I look at the topics and see which one appeals to me more. Some weeks I immediately have an idea, just from the prompts alone.
- If I don't immediately have an idea, I flip through my 'Ideas' notebook, and see if anything there might be relevant.
- I then talk to my brother, who is also a writer (he actually created two of the characters I use in my writing) and we discuss what might work, and what he advises helps me make the final decision.

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

When I am uncertain about what to write I just sleep on it.
I get most of my inspiration from my dreams.

On a side note I have a photo of my first tattoo posted here
http://ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com/269246.html

[oxymoron67.livejournal.com]

The last few prompts, I figured out fairly quickly what I wanted to write about.

This set took me a bit longer. I don't know why, but none of those prompts immediately spoke to me.

I ended up brainstorming with a friend.

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

I have writing ideas and a plan for something. It's hard to write right on a road trip. I'm not making excuses,... Well I guess I am, sorta, but I'm trying. AW

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Write it wrong and edit later. :)

Brainstorming the Topics

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Feel free to join in. I'm only using spoiler cuts to save this from being the world's longest comment.

Out of reach

Brass ring on a merry-go round
Glass ceiling
Sour grapes
One of those mechanical grabber bars
Grocery shopping with short people
Unavailable by phone or internet
Needing an important paper while tethered to a conference call (it's happened)
Seeing a bathroom door across a crowded auditorium/airport
Pet parrot escapes to tree limb
Pet cat escapes to tree limb
Car keys fall down through drainage grate
Kitten falls down through drainage grate
Baby duck, etc.


Out of the Blue

Monster/aliens/enemies appear in the sky
Monster/aliens/enemies appear in the sea
Television weather person killed by entity that emerges from the chroma key (I started to write that, but just don't trust myself with horror. Have at it, if you like)
Scary thing comes out of tidy-bowl bowl
Something unexpected happens
Someone emerges from depression
An expected boy baby is born a girl
Someone leaves the air force


Cards on the Table

Telling secrets
Greeting cards from dead/missing loved one
Or birthday/get well cards arriving for event
Playing poker/hearts/spades/cribbage/go fish/solitaire
Tarot reading
Flash cards - studying for finals
Cards Against Humanity - I had to say it
Index cards for a presentation - the ones left aside


I Think I'll Never See

Stuff you wish you could see
People you wish you could see again
Government you wish you could have
Imaginary creatures you invent
Retirement
Peace on Earth
What you thought you'd have/be/do by now in your life when you were a kid (<- poorly formed sentence. leaving it.)


The last one is really the widest open. It lends itself to all kinds of rants or wistful thoughts or imaginary critters.

What do you think?

Re: Brainstorming the Topics

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Scary thing comes out of tidy-bowl bowl

I dare someone to write this.

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

Hg entry
http://ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com/269802.html

[meepalicious.livejournal.com]

I can usually just get an idea from one and go from there… This week, none of them really jump out at me, but I'm trying not to worry about it too much because so far I've never gone with my initial idea, anyway.

[kandigurl.livejournal.com]

Relief that I don't have to write any of them because I'm still on vacation. ;)

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

I hope your vacation is enjoyable.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

I go for a walk.
Suddenly, the solution
Presents itself. W00t!

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Is it just me, or are the interwebz dead today?

::drops pin::

::listens::

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

*tink*

Beta?

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I need a beta, pretty please? I've got a draft written, but I need advice on how to end it (it's nonfiction, I'm just stumped).

Please email me at Pandria@aol.com - thanks!

ugh.

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

These topics are much more difficult for me this week. I don't know if it's the vagueness of the topics, or what. I'm just not getting it, and it's frustrating.

I have IRL events going on too, which I suppose complicates the need to sit down and write. So I filled up pages with poetry that doesn't rhyme one bit. My brain is just in a fog.

So right now, I'm staring at that brick wall that I've hit. I'm tracing the contours of the mortar, counting the bricks. Trying to distinguish a pattern, and wondering where the rhyme went. I dislike this wall greatly.

Re: ugh.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

You could do a nonfic meta piece about the rhyme being just out of reach.

Meta doesn't always do well, but it can be done very well.

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

I went, "Oooooo." But that's because two of them are ideal for spec fic and the other two are quite close to it. :)

Right now my brick wall is my mother, who has the knack of calling whenever I get started writing. *sigh*