Green Room - Week 14 - Day 4

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

It’s a new day, and a new twist… in order to get into the finale, you will have to push a busload of orphans off a climb into a pool of endangered sharks. Then you will have to tell your favorite relative to post a video of themselves doing something embarassing on youtube and help it go viral, and make them read the comments section!!


Or maybe you will just have to survive some polls, I really haven’t decided.. but it will be one of those things!

One of those polls in question though is already up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/689432.html so you should probably go check it out!

Comments

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

I am glad I killed you before the deadline, that is all!


Edit: Frist!

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more evil...

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

I looked at the poll this morning and had to laugh. xD I am glad I got out when I did! I saved myself!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Hello from a very long registration line in Atlanta! It is actually moving at a pretty good clip so I guess I can't complain too much, but I will anyway! *gripe gripe gripe*

Fun poll twist... At least from THIS side!

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Can we just have our favorite relative pushing a bus of orphans of a climb into a pool of endangered sharks with video cameras on their heads?

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Anyone want to go get some buzz juice?

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/204646/this-insane-christian-anti-porn-movie-will-make-you-so-grateful-youre-a-sinner/

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

*laughs* All right all right, you got me with the "keep some perspective" thing there.

I just... you know, I know it comes down to "there can be only one" but it's tough when you THOUGHT you were working together, you know?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I would comment in the Green Room, but I'm still not speaking to you. :P

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I just asked someone an interesting question - which is rare for me, so I figured I should share it before it went out of my head again! ;)

If you had KNOWN that people were competing against each other (either you getting the hints or for some reason I decided to tell you) would you have paired with someone else?

Who? and why?

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Yes, it sucks to be pitted against someone who is your friend, and with whom you worked hard this week.

But when two friends have books out at the same time in the same genre, that's pretty sucky, too.

Or when Oprah calls and says she's got two minutes available, so only one of you can talk.

This isn't just a "good writing" contest. In that case, we could line everyone's pieces up in front of gatekeepers and do it in four weeks. And someone whom a committee of judges agreed none of them hated enough to vote against would win.

This twist is no more anti-good-writing than vote-farming, pimping, pandering, sympathy-begging, or Tyra telling the models they have to run through Walmart picking up clothes before the photo shoot (damn I miss the shorties cycle--I swear that was the last good one).

I get names of literary magazines to send my work to from writer friends all the time. We submit to the same residencies and the same contests. It's not as blatantly out there, but yes, we are being pitted against each other.

We're still friends. If they get in and I don't, I feel shitty and jealous for an hour, and then I get over it and write something else. Because I'm a writer. And there will be another contest, or residency, or magazine--just one click away.

Idol changed my life. I learned to write quality to deadline, to promote my own work, to take responsibility for reminding people that they liked my work and they should read it and vote for it. And when I'm sending out a hundred polite publicity letters for a novel and getting 99 no's, it's all going to be part of the routine. Submit, lose, feel shitty, get over it, repeat until win.

So make a choice.

Do you care about your friend more? Then spend the next couple of days getting your voters to read their work and see if they like it. Link it on your Facebook with a tantalizing quote. Email it to your friends. Call someone up and read it to them.

Do you care about winning more? Then now is the time to promote your work. Do the same steps for yourself. No-one's good work is magically recognized with zero promotion.

Neither choice is wrong or bad. But making one of them and taking action will probably feel better than feeling crappy about a tough situation.

Keep writing.

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

This poll is more a direct competition because two people are fighting for one spot but in the regular poll it's not much different. You're going against your friends every week. This week just makes it a bit more personal but I still don't see the difference or reason to fret so much.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Ya know, at first I had Lots Of Opinions on this, and then I tried laughing it off, and then I had more opinions. Maybe it's just the way things are. Maybe it's some representation of the way Real Writing works. Maybe it's proof that Gary sold his soul to Satan Almighty in a shady back alley in exchange for a hoard of intarwebz minions to lord over. Maybe it doesn't matter in the first place, because once you hit the Top 10 or so, nothing means anything since the whole thing's devolved into little more than a pimping contest where nothing is remotely indicative of anything and nobody actually loses to anybody and people just lose to each other's friendslists, facebooks, and friends of friends instead. Maybe it's time to FIRE ZEE MISSILES (but I am le tired) and there's nothing left but fuckin' kangaroos.

Whutevs. If Kate wins this round, I'll be happy for her. If I win this round, I'll be happy for me. Right now, I'm happy work's over, it's a 3-day weekend, and I just got home from the bar.

What I'm not happy about is that I can't root for myself without wishing failure on a friend. Not doing everything I can to advance my own interests and ensure my own success goes against every instinct and fiber of my being. Wishing failure on a friend also goes against every instinct and fiber of my being. I know there's some fucking annoying philosophical argument that points out this whole thing is inevitable, but IDGAF. It's not inevitable *yet*, or at least it didn't have to be, so I'm fucking annoyed.

FIRE ZEE MISSILES.

Late Commenter Edition

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should post this again tomorrow, but this is worth a listen by everyone.