Work Room - Week 17

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

The new topic is up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/767515.html

There have been conversations lately that folks need to step up their game. What do YOU think about that, and if you agree - how are you going to do it?

Heck, even if you disagree, we've past the Top 100, so it's going to have to happen anyway! How are you going to do it?

For that matter - what does "stepping up your game" writing-wise *mean* to you? ;)

Comments

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

Damn, I have clearly been missing these conversations. I need to spend more time in the GR. At this point, if I can manage to finish pieces in time for the deadlines that would be stepping up my game because I seem to have a bit of an issue with that. XD

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

My feelings run this way too! I missed those convos. And also, how exactly can I "step it up?"

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

yeah i'm wondering where these conversations are happening as well.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Conveying a new thought in a new form .... a relentless expansion of boundary. Doing away with a personal status quo.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

:nodding:

My interpretation? Break out of your usual mold. If you primarily write fiction, for instance, try nonfiction. Or vice versa. Poetry? Go for it. Essay of some sort? Why not? I'll put myself in the same boat in saying that I think we all tend to get a little too comfortable with what we're "good" (ooh, scare quote!) at, so it's inevitable that we're all going to feel the need to shake it up as time goes on, you know?

And who knows -- maybe you'll discover that "Hey, I can be great at [genre] too!"

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I think that most of us have already stepped up, it's going to be harder and harder to keep doing it from here on out!

As far as what it means to me, it means possibly trying a different genre or doing something unexpected. It's a tough nut to crack...

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

I really agree with this. Where are these Idol conversations happening? I have to avoid the WR because I need to write first...and the GR seems more conversational than introspective.

I don't necessarily think all writers are served by trying new genres, voices, approaches....

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

I feel like stepping it up for me will entail shortening my entries up and giving them more emotion and punch, but in a smaller package. As to how I will do that, I have "no clue !"

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

On the flip side, most of my pieces are short and punchy (I think my average post is in the 400-600 word range). I feel like I probably need to work on character development or maybe environment description, but it's a fine line between TMI / TL:DR and "oh, this is great!"

[reckless-blues.livejournal.com]

*mumbles something about not writing the whole piece two hours before deadline*

[talon.livejournal.com]

yeah.......

I'm "stepping up my game"...

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

... by skipping town.

I'm off to have some fun -- a friend suggested this trip a couple of months back, and the fateful date has finally arrived. So I'll be spending a couple of days in a nice hotel... which may give me the peace and quiet I need to write. Hey, it was part of Maya Angelou's writing process, so it should work for me, too...

Re: I'm "stepping up my game"...

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Have a wonderful time :)

We've got an offer to go away in a couple of weeks but one of us *not me* is still trying to finagle a work schedule around it, so please cross your fingers it'll work!

[eska818.livejournal.com]

So... about the topic? Someone mind illuminating for me? Or should I feel stupid for not "getting it?"

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

Try Googling "scare quotes." I'm guessing from the way Gary used quotes in the topic post that this would be one acceptable interpretation (theun4givables and I were confused at first, too).

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

Also, I did have a conversation with alephz (right before he sacrificed, wahhhhhh) this week about how I'd like to step up my game. I'm just assuming that's not the conversation Gary is referring to.

For me, stepping up my game entails getting the fuck over myself long enough to write the piece I want to write. I want to get back a little of what I had in season 8, which (I think) was creativity with the topics, a willingness to try new things, and a total lack of embarrassment about the fact that I might be posting things that sucked some (or all) of the time.

The thing was, back then, I didn't have any preconceived notions about who I was as a writer, or even about being a writer. I was so much more free, and I miss that.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I've gone through "Ignorance is bliss!" and "Oh shit people think I'm good so I'd better be good or I'll look like I suck" and now I'm back to "Fuck it! I'm having fun!"

[kandigurl.livejournal.com]

I genuinely have no idea how to step up my game, though I know it could do with some stepping. I read the entries that are amazing and I'm like, "I never would have thought of that in a billion years." At this point in the game, I prefer to just write what I feel most like writing and hope for the best. I feel like when I'm actively trying to step up my game, my entries are pure crap.

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

I feel like a lot of my problem with writing, period, is the way I constantly pressure myself to step up my game. And like you, I feel like this leads to my mostly producing crap. Or nothing. Or unfinished crappy nothings.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I got a scare quote for you: I have to meet a $1,500 deductible for the physical therapy for my arthritic knees before insurance will kick in.

But I'll do it, and I'll probably write an entry this week, too ....

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

OUCH!

That's like me and my $1000 deductible on my homeowners before I can get the electrical fixed. If I told you what my health insurance deductible is this year you'd collapse because I nearly did (hint -- it's more than yours. MUCH more).

[binaryorchid.livejournal.com]

I think I will go over this topic in my mind during the day and maybe the first inspiration will come to me. From the Wikipedia article (thank you crimsonplum ) I can sense a direction where this will be going. First thought about my final thesis, when I was afraid I was not quoting my sources properly and would fail because of that ;).

[oxymoron67.livejournal.com]

Oooo... plagiarism. I wonder if I could riff on this with a plagiarism story.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

*skips into the WR* FINALLY I have my computer back from the "technical experts" at Dell. (See what I did thar?)


Also, this comes to mind for this week's topic:

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

i was thinking about writing about all the scare quotes used in Hollywood including the notorious "you'll never work in this town again"

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Please do. It'll be interesting to read.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Seeing how many people constantly misuse such quotes, this makes me want to write about being a grammar nazi, and maybe also whinge about how ridiculous it reads when someone moans about bad grammar and makes not one but several mistakes while doing so.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Ah. But obvious. Write a scene about whatever elephants in the room and make the characters squirm.

There was a funny one I don't-remember-where in Quantum Leap between Al and Dr. Ruth where he could not for the life of him say he loved Tina's breasts and kept inventing euphemisms *giggle *

[fodschwazzle.livejournal.com]

Double scare quotes:

"We're 'pregnant!'"

But in honesty, this is a tricksy topic.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Does it count as half a scare quote if you have an apostrophe in there?

[poppetawoppet.livejournal.com]

since last week was a complete pinch hit pop fly hail mary from me, I'd like to a) turn my entry in before last minute and b) try a different format/genre of writing to change things up since I keep saying the same thing over and over again

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Stepping up - I'm trying to write each entry with a specific post-Idol market in mind. That's also helping me shape my pieces by giving me a more specific form or tone.

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

Oooh. They'll pay you to write? What is this madness, and WHY has nobody ever TOLD me this??

;-)

I have a problem.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

My twisted mind has come up with an interesting line of thought regarding this week's topic... but I can't figure out how to turn it into a story. Feedback/suggestions would be appreciated:

I start off with one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite novels: "Fear is the little death."

I link this to a French euphemism for orgasm: "Le petite mort", which literally translates as... "The little death".

So:

Fear = The Little Death
Orgasm = The Little Death
Ergo: Fear = Orgasm

The problem is that I don't know what to do with this conclusion... other than writing a piece which explores the prevalence of sex in horror movies, but that seems like a very dry approach.

In a word: HELP!

Re: I have a problem.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Thoughts that come to mind:

• Don't make it the conclusion, make it the beginning.
  
• Write about "serial scarers."
  
• Write about people intensely afraid of climax. (Maybe give them a reason. Make it "le grand mort" instead. Or "les mortes rouges"?)
  
• Insert drugs, chemicals, or spices (ha ha) that heighten the feeling of climax. But maybe come with scary hallucinations. (Just be careful you don't go full Palimpsest here.)

So I personally like the idea of someone trying to score some spice in a red light district and then using it to ill-advised effect. If you want to get really messy with it, start the story off with them waking up in prison and then trying to separate out which of the blissful / frightening experiences were real or hallucinogenic.

But I'm sure you can find a few other ways to run with it.

Hope any of that turns out to be useful!

[dreamsreflected.livejournal.com]

I can think of about 40 ways to up my game, some of them however would require I neither sleep nor attend to my "for money" work or those pesky small humans. However on a practical level my sentence structure and general editing needs vast improvement. And that is my goal for the immediate future.

Formatting Help

[rayaso.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know how to format a block quote so that both margins are indented and there are no vertical lines next to the text? I have been using Semagic for initial formatting and then using the LJ Idol editting function to add the html commands for blockquote and end blockquote at the start and finish.

Alternatively, is there a generally accepted format for lengthy quotes that you want to set off from the main text?

Thanks for any help, and despite what it looks like, I don't know anything about html.

Re: Formatting Help

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

<blockquote> Quote </blockquote> is the generally accepted format, but you can change how it displays margins. Some browsers do, unfortunately, render blockquote with a bar at the side, but most do not, and my guess would be that you might be picking it up as a feature of your journal style -- several LJ styles do it deliberately. I do not know how to fix it if it's a browser display thing, but if it's journal-style related, you can probably set the border to none to get rid of it.

Try

<blockquote style="margin-right:30px; margin-left:30px; border-style:none; border-width:0px"> Quote. </blockquote>

which becomes

Quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote quote.

which I think is what you're looking for in terms of margins? And hopefully that will do something about the bar as well.

(Apologies for being a week late! I'm just now catching up on the WR.)

ETA: Apparently not, because there is now a box around my example. :(