Work Room (LCI) - Week 3

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the Work Room.

For some of you, from Last Chance Idol, you've never been here before. For others, it's old hat.

But here in this space, you are all in the same boat. Hopefully people in the main competition will come in as well (as I hope LCIers will show up in their Work Rooms as well) to give advice and bounce ideas with you.

That's what this space is all about. To help you figure things out.

Your topic has just been posted: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/791087.html


You are in a unique spot. You're in the competition, and yet staring in for just outside of the action. Like you have been unstuck in time. As LCI progresses, some will be eliminated and others will have a shot at moving up to "The Show". When you do that involves some strategy and relying on your instincts of when you want to jump into that pool to swim with the sharks.

***

Where is your head at with the topic?

What do you want to avoid?

What do your feel are your strengths as a writer, and most importantly, how are you using your time in LCI to give yourself a spotlight to catapult you to success within the main competition once you get there?

Comments

but some of us are looking at the stars

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

i for one am hoping someone writes about bowling (-:

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Bowling was also my first thought. :)

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Why?

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

The channel on either side of a bowling alley is called a gutter. If the bowler rolls poorly, the ball falls into that channel and hits zero pins. When that happens, it's called a gutter ball.

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[itsjustc.livejournal.com]

Ah! thanks for explaining :) I was wondering why too!

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Ah, I did not know that about bowling. Thank you.

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

Okay then. That has a great potential for humor, the way I see it!

Not the direction I plan to take, so I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I'm not planning to write on it, though I guess I could Home Game a SCI topic. I'm sure someone will do something funny with it though. :)

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why bowling.
The Oscar Wilde quote, yes, the Rush lyric, yes, I guess those are my contexts for this phrase.

Interesting!

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

::points up to my explanation to kehlen_crow::

Re: but some of us are looking at the stars

[vik_thor]

Thanks!
That actually got my mind working.
I had been thinking along the lines of "mind in the gutter" or the physical street gutters, or even the gutters of printed materials. And nothing was coming.

No idea why bowling hadn't entered my head. My entry is posted, but not linked, as I will probably do some editing, or add some more at the end, after I let it sit for a bit.

[banyangirl1832.livejournal.com]

I have an idea for this one that sort of converges on another prompt I just read. YA unrequited high school romance in a poor Southern ex-factory town is kinda where my brain is going with this.

[medleymisty.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a Southern factory town. The factories started leaving a bit before I moved to the biggest city in the state, and I hear my home town has gone downhill quite a bit now.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

C'mon, guys, I can't be the only one whose mind went in the gutter with this week's topic...

Of course, I don't have any other ideas other than that particular association -- but you guys in LCI have fun with this potential spark. ;)

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

A lot of deliberately salient jokes in this week's bunch of entries, huh? :-)

I'm getting worse with it, too. To give just one example, the ladies' and gents' toilets at my college have these signs on them.

I had to pause for months and think hard WHY I had to go to the toilet with a penis sign on it, and WHY not the one with the vagina.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Neither one of those look like a penis or vagina to me. :) The one on the left is a lady wearing an A-line dress, the one on the right is a broad-shouldered gentleman.

*shrug*

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

That's why I say my mind's in the gutter here :-) because I have asked around and I seem to be the only one to see such symbols in these images.

[crackpotpie.livejournal.com]

What about the fact that every time it rains really hard, Bigfoot eggs get washed down the gutter, and now there's an army of Bigfoots under every major American metropolitan area? And you can bet your sweet bippy that the New World Order has already trained them how to use machine guns.

It's going to be a Bigfoot uprising someday! Mark my words!

*HELP*!

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I am struggling finding a way to approach the topic, and I will be busy all damned day on Monday, so I *MUST* get something written and posted by Sunday night.

So: Hit me with suggestions... *PLEASE*!

---

As for Gary's questions:

Where is your head at with the topic?
No damned where. *HELP* *ME*!!!

What do you want to avoid?
I want to avoid being eliminated. *HELP* *ME*!!!

What do your feel are your strengths as a writer, and most importantly, how are you using your time in LCI to give yourself a spotlight to catapult you to success within the main competition once you get there?

What "strengths"?! I'm a weak-assed loser!!!
...
OK, back it up. I have recently gotten compliments for my historical fiction, and my non-fiction anecdote last week was very well received -- I just missed having an opportunity to get back into The Big Show. In previous seasons, I have also been complimented on the quality of my "voice" in my pieces. It's been a while since I wrote something that showed off that skill, so that might be a tack to try...

PS: I *NEED* IDEAS! H*E*L*P!!!!

Re: *HELP*!

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

Honestly, the subject kind of screams at you to examine the fact that you self examine yourself way too much and is unduly harsh at your own skills... and in this you are not dissimilar to many other idolers in the present and in the past.

What is it that makes talented, creative people so aware of flaws that sometimes only they can perceive?

That's kind of an interesting subject...

...

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

... I must admit that I had briefly considered writing something vaguely along these lines. I initially rejected the concept because the piece I envisioned would have been quite dark, and I didn't want to take that approach for multiple reasons. But the way that you've phrased it... I think I could write something along those lines that could actually be ultimately hopeful and uplifting.

Thank you. I think you just helped me achieve a breakthrough...

Re: *HELP*!

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll put in my .02 cents for what it's worth. (Not much in today's economy!)

The topic makes me think of A) the "lowest common denominator" - bringing everyone down to the same level, such as "dumbing things down" in school so that "nobody is left behind." B) Conversely, if we are "all in the gutter" then we are already at the lowest point, and the only thing to do is look UP, get UP, and make some positive movement. C) It is apparently also part of an Oscar Wilde quote: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. --From Lady Windermere's Fan

Appreciate it.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I think I know how I'm going to go on this one... but more info and input is always good.

Re: *HELP*!

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Also, like theun4givables said, 'gutter', if you walk further away from the quote, may be all the ideas and images we suddenly have in ordinary situations that we consider 'a bit not good' and 'why did my mind go there, how disgusting'.

I have thought about using this one, because it fan make for a rather funny story, but I have not yet found the proper angle.

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

I was originally going to do a piece on a serial killer named 'The Gutter' but went a whooooole different way. The idea is out there now though if anyone needs it. :)