Green Room - Week 10 - Day 2

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Business.
Business.
Business.
Personal.

That's what today's Green Room agenda is for me today under "Unfinished Business". If you have anything to introduce under "New Business" you can do so then. Or if just wish to speak, in general, that will be handled under "Around the Horn".

First item of business is to let you know that the poll for Second Chances is up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/896220.html so go take a look and cast a vote for who will be coming back! Every week, for the next 4 weeks, people will have the chance to get back into the game. So spread the word and make sure folks know!

I'll also admit that originally I was going to make it a 24-hours to vote. But then I realized "that will cut into my Survivor premiere time!" So F-that! :D 48 (or so) hours to read 4 entries. Pretty sure you can handle that.

Our second item is that the Topic post is up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/894992.html for the main competition. Which should be the first item. Because the main competition is always the most important emphasis. But you have until Friday, so it's not as time sensitive.
There is also a Work Room, which was going to be the third item, but I decided to put it down as Item 2b on the agenda: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/895604.html this is where you knock the cobwebs out of whatever is in your brain so that you can sit down and write!

Third item on the Agenda, and one that I mentally moved from 1st to 3rd because it was an easier transition to the Personal is that I have some bad news, and some good news for those who like to keep track of such things:

The bad news: misfitmanor has let me know that she is officially "tagging out" of this season. Which, if you've read their work, you know is a really bad thing. Especially after mamas_minion's entry last week - which, if you missed with all the other things going on, or because the technical difficulties they had with it not being up for part of the poll: http://misfitmanor.livejournal.com/3286.html You should definitely read it.

Here's the good news: I said "tagging out". Because when I announced earlier this season that it was an option I wasn't sure what was going to happen with it. And now it's being used for the second time! If you are someone who is out of byes, and know you are not going to be able to make the deadline - instead of just dropping, you have the option of "tagging someone else in" (it's a tag-team wrestling thing) to take your spot. In this case, she decided to bring back ellakite!

So, I'm really sorry to be losing misfitmanor, but I'm excited to be welcoming back ellakite!

Which brings us to the Personal item... it's kind of "business" as well, but I'm looking at this from a personal standpoint, so that's how I labelled it.

Obviously, that decision was highly influenced by what happened in yesterday's Green Room. But I will also point out that what happened in yesterday's Green Room has a lot to do with multiple things, from multiple people, that have absolutely nothing to do with Idol itself. You don't check your outside life at the door. Neither do I. With something like this - it would be extremely difficult to do so, even if you tried. There's always spill over, and spill over tends to blow up from time to time.

I have two points of view on that: On one hand, it's "damn good TV". People love it when there are folks mixing it up. From a reader/spectator standpoint, a disagreement (and ultimately the one yesterday wasn't *huge* or all that heated - by internet standards) is something that tends to make everyone lean in a little more.

As someone who not only likes the writing of everyone, but likes them as *people*... that's when it gets rough. No one likes to see their friends fight.

(Unless, of course, you have set them up in a makeshift arena and selling tickets to the bout!) Which is why I tend to step back, let adults hash things out for themselves and try to only respond to "issues about Idol" where I think I can either be helpful or I think there is misinformation being given. (Most of it is intended as helpful - AKA "from my perspective", giving insight into how and why things happen from the one person who knows the insides of this creature. And example of "misinformation" from yesterday would be where I corrected the "Week 30" reference to being "when we are at 30 contestants left")

You make diamonds with time and pressure. It's the same thing that makes Idol winners! Pressure comes from all different sources and the stress-fractures are going to be different for everyone. Just keep that in mind when dealing with people... everyone is under the same stress *here*, but different forces are at work on them outside the game, so when and how it impacts them is going to manifest in different ways. That's going to make their reaction to events unfolding unique.

I try to keep that in mind when I deal with folks within Idol. I don't always succeed (because I have my own forces working on me at the same time!), but I like to think I try.

Of course, at the same time, I'm still going to do things that can, and will, drive you absolutely crazy. Why? Because life does that. Being able to sit down and just write your ass off is easy when you "just feel like it". But the ability to do that when everything is going crazy? That's an usual skill set to have. ;)

Also, it's "good TV" - people watching from the sidelines love seeing the reactions - and it's all about trying to maintain that balance!

Comments

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Balance is such a hard thing to achieve, really. Everything tugs at you all at once and each thing deserves a certain amount of attention and it's one of the things that's not fun about being an adult.

Speaking of balance I fucked it up a little this weekend by reading three books in three days and now that series has consumed my soul. I had no kid this weekend. I could have written a lot of words and didn't. xD

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

What series?

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

The Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat. I'm in love with it and the main characters and the worldbuilding involved in it and --

It also makes me hopeful as an aspiring published writer for many reasons. :)

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Having been on the receiving end of a nasty exchange in S9 in a GR, I can empathize. It's grotesque and I really don't see any validation or justification for the ways in which some folks choose to interact with others. Real Life Forces notwithstanding.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Honestly, a lot of them can come down to different personalities.

In my case, I know most of the personalities (with new people of course I'm constantly learning) and so when I see them saying something I can filter what they *mean*, even if it might not be coming out in the best way.

Of course that also backfires because I can read context that isn't intended on being there, but because I know their history I read it anyway. :)

Dealing with people is always a challenge. Dealing with people on the internet doubly so.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! People are COMPLICATED. ;) And the oftentimes touted idea that "if we were all just in the same room....." is laughable because hell it's easier to vehemently dislike someone in person, and for even less legitimate reasons!

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Also worth noting is that I tend to look at disagreements/fights in terms of "is this worse than anything else I've seen over the years", and most times it's not.

I feel like the old guy shaking my cane and talking about how the damn kids can't even fight properly anymore! :)

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

.
Reading
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PRIMARY COLORS by Anonymous. Never read it before, Did Not See the movie.
.
Am enjoying it MORE because of the year this is, election year this is, Yoda, yes, AND...
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Because it's a book. It is Written.
.

infighting

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

.
oh wait, did I mention there be some Nasty In-Fighting going on behind the scenes within the primary campaign of a "fictional" candidate... in the book, I mean......
.
ah, so 1992 it was, long, long ago.
.
"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now"
.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

fodschwazzle wrote a great comment the other day:

I'm coming to the conclusion, more and more, that the points are nearly just black magic. It's nice to have a "win" associated with a tough inventive process like writing, but are high and low point scores truly reflective of quality? Can there be other factors accumulated against the possibility that the high point are a direct result of damn good writing?

I say that this is an unknowable. I say that the end is a creeping death. I moot that a degree of voter manipulation is man's natural state when it comes to choosing a final contestant, but malarkey sent from heaven can strike at any time, leaving the best of us blind and/or dead. To those of you who wonder if you're going to be ousted this week or next or the one after, I offer you this word of consolation: probably.

And isn't that a sweet mercy, when the world is so cold and lonesome? When you call yourself a member of a team, but your team will be the first to leave you face down in the dirt when the fires of heaven steal your breath, isn't it a mercy to know that the end is nigh?


^This may have been tongue-in-cheek, I love it either way.

It always--always--boils down to "You get out of Idol what you put into it." In Season 8, I won (no offense, Gary) fleeting Internet fame in a small group and some personal pride. But the bigger takeaway was more friends and writing buddies, a stack of essays and short fiction that I'm STILL publishing from*, and the writing habit.

Sure it's about points. It's about strategy and winning and voting and pissing other people off enough so that they quit and you have one less person to read (if you're the kind of person who is relieved to have one less person to read, because it lets you give more thoughtful feedback to everyone else by saving three minutes, right?) but not so much that you look like a bad guy and lose votes.

But it's also about writing your best work every week, and sucking it up when you get a comment you don't like, and feeling good when you get a comment you like and using BOTH of those comments to make your work better the next week. It's about writing when you're not inspired and you don't "feel like it," because there's a deadline. It's about showing up as a reader to everyone else's work and being part of a literary community.

I would not be a working freelance editor without having spent a year learning to give feedback that was useful and realize when it was welcome. I would not be a working writer without having spent a year writing every week and shoehorning writing in around work and life and travel.

I would not be in this contest again without friends I wanted to spend time with.

So I'm good with black magic points and I'm good with behind-the-scenes-machinations and I'm good with the cream rising to the top, because honestly, none of those things matter. What matters is writing, and what matters is friends.

#Avocado4Life



--------------
*Yes! IMHO you can publish stuff you already put up on LJ, because morally/ethically, you do not have a wide enough audience to count as "previously published" even when some dingbat lit mag that thinks it's a big deal gets all huffy about "published on the internet counts." Switch that entry to Private before submitting, and if anyone asks, tell them "I had a previous version shared online with a writing group I'm part of, but this is a new draft."

idol

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

.
Yes.
.
Yes, twice.
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& 3 - thrice .
.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

It's a little piece of a small corner of the internet. But it's one that will help you in all of the other corners!

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Absolutely!!! And I, too, am still selling Idol pieces!

But....not everyone who is here is here for this takeaway. And I think for those folks, their experience needs to be considered. I'm NOT saying that YOU aren't considering them...but I'm suggesting that as an overall experience of Idol, we aren't all here for the same reason(s).

And I think that the voting will always feel like a popularity contest to some and arbitrary to others. It's human nature to take a vote result and make it personal.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Yep - that's why I mentioned friends, writing buddies, writing habits, learning to edit/respond, improving one's own work, and (obliquely) participation in internet drama.

What else are people here for? Anyone wanna weigh in?

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

I've done Idol for various reasons throughout the two full seasons I've done and all of the mini-seasons.

I really, really hated playing in S9, after a point. It became too much of a game of "how do I play to Idol's tastes?" while forgetting myself as a writer and what it is I ENJOY writing and bringing to the table.

Start of this mini-season, I found myself doing the same things. Also, working normal hours like a normal human being has made working with the idol deadlines more difficult, to say the least, even though I was far more physically exhausted when I worked 3rd shift.

Monday night I saw SCI go up. I saw that it had a 24 hour deadline. I went -- ehhhh. I have work tomorrow, 8-530 (which usually ends up being 8-630 or later). With my luck Bob'll be awake at 515 anyway and I won't really have any time to write in the morning before work or after work because I'll be on Bob-duty until he goes to bed (generally around 830, every night)

And Bob woke up at 510. And I did work my 8-530 shift. But as I sat down at my computer by 520, I told Sarah I was going to try for SCI anyway and that this sequence was pulling at me so I might as well. I even convinced her to try. I knew it'd be kinda long. I knew I wouldn't really have a whole lot of time.

I wrote 670 words before I went to work. I wrote another 600-700 while AT work, because I got lucky and was placed in the drive thru (and I got teasingly bitched at for doing things I'm Not Supposed to Do while at work by my boss -- STOP SURFING THE WEB. DO WORK -- what work? I have no transactions to do other than the ones you're bringing to me...). I pulled the rest out of me at home, while putting my son to bed. I scrambled to get my post up minutes before the deadline.

And tbh that's what I've been missing. This pressure to just Get It Done. And that's what I'm here for. I don't wanna play to the crowd I want to play to *me* and I want to share the things I love with everyone.

It likely won't serve me well if I make it back in the Main Game, but hey. xD At least I'll be trying to adhere to a 24 hour deadline for four weeks...

It's the challenge I miss. I already write an average of 1200 words a day and I have the habit but Idol fills a little hole and reminds me why I write, somehow, eventually.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

That's part of the challenge. There are so many things that can distract you. So many things that can make you take your eyes from "what I need to do". How do you manage them? How do you make sure you don't let them get to you?

That's a "Life Thing". But Idol definitely has them implanted in the DNA. The people who are the most successful in Idol are the ones who can manage to do everything else *and* navigate their way through without tripping over the obstacles or themselves.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

This is a getting close to the "point" of Idol - you want readers. We all want readers. We are all capable of writing on our own; working, editing, storyboarding, creating characters, arcing plot, on our own. But at the end of all that blood, sweat, and tears is the desire for an audience.

Idol readers are GREAT readers! So, then the question becomes more about the give-and-take aspect of Idol. If we want readers, then we need to be readers, too?

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

This. I'd still be writing novels in my spare time, but I don't think I'd have learned just how many minutes of the day I could use for it without Idol tormenting me weekly. I also don't think I'd have taken those serial stories and turned them into a 65,000 word first draft without the encouragement.

And I'm certain I wouldn't be immersing myself in querying all these damn manuscripts if readers hadn't given me the confidence to take a chance on it, and at intervals kicked my a** with feedback.

[swirlsofblue.livejournal.com]

"I had a previous version shared online with a writing group I'm part of, but this is a new draft."

Thank you. I will be using this ;).

[prog-schlock.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to see misfitmanor go. I've enjoyed their entries and felt affinity to them because they're going through what I'm going through vis a vis diabetes-forced-lifestyle-changes. Wishing them health, happiness, and some appropriate good food.

[misfitmanor.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. It is an adjustment, to be sure. Though, mamas_minion has recently discovered the joy of the challenge that is solving the puzzle of how to cook delectable gourmet dishes that are tasty, but fit within his diet. I knew that if I could get him there, that we would be home free, because he has always been a foodie, and loves to cook... he considers it meditative. And I love to solve puzzles, and I consider every obstacle in life just a puzzle to be solved, or worked around. We make a nice team. And we're going to be just fine.

Incidentally, I have discovered there are surprisingly a small collective of people in LJ Idol with diabetes... we discovered after the fact that our team of 5 had 3 members. So, we're in good company, at least. I believe we friended you some time ago, so, if you'd like to friend us back, we'll try to stay in touch, and perhaps occasionally commiserate! ;)

karmasoup

[sinnamongirl.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry to see misfitmanor go, but it's balanced by seeing ellakite back.

I... missed some fighting? Or something?

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. I knew that misfitmanor as a team was having trouble fitting in Idol vs. real life, but I was hoping they'd found a way to battle through.

Sorry to see you go, and I hope you'll be back in a future season! But I'm glad mamas_minion got that piece out last week before you got too waylaid.

:(

OTOH, welcome back ellakite! That was a kind exchange. :)

[misfitmanor.livejournal.com]

We had battling since week 3, really. We tried to give in via sacrifice already, but a handful of people wanted us to stay, and voted for us, so we tried to stick it out, but it's been a struggle. We were already waffling prior to this week, and my husband and I had already decided Monday night to throw in the towel before I visited the green room yesterday... more or less looking for a reason to stay, because no one likes to have to quit. Instead, I found more reasons to let go, walk away, get back to the real world, and on with our lives.

But I'd already commented that we were considering who to give our spot to, and I was planning on taking a hard look at massacre week, possibly also adding in a few fan favorites. We offered it to 5 people, simultaneously. gratefuladdict and mac_arthur_park wanted to submit through Second Chance, to be voted back in, and I can certainly respect that. lapis_lazuli615 still has too much going on, and ellakite was the only one to jump at it. He was already prepared to submit an entry for Second Chance, too, but this way, now he doesn't have to. He loves this place so much, and has such a strong stomach for it. I really hated to see him go out on a non-fiction entry, especially one so genuine, and touching. So, I'm glad for him to be back where he belongs.

I might stick around, and read some entries, without feeling the pressure to force myself into the astronomical time suck of getting to every single one every week (I read slow. I absorb. I ruminate.), or the self-imposed rule of waiting until I have mine complete to begin reading, so I'm not influenced by anyone else. I might even write for the homegame, if I'm so inspired. Or, I might just take a break and disappear or a while. We'll see. No guarantees right now.

I was really glad to see mamas_minion write that entry, too. He's so very rarely inspired to write non-fiction, because he doesn't talk much, and hardly ever about himself, but every time he does, he blows my mind. I guess there's something to be said for only speaking when you have something to say. I'd love to encourage him to do it more often, but he has to be inspired. Maybe I can convince him to write a home game entry now and then. We'll see. In the meantime, we may or more not be cheering from the sidelines, but we'll at least show our support to our team, to whom we're connected on FB, and anyone else connected to us there can feel free to ask us for a beta read anytime... we'll actually have the chance to get it done now!

Thanks for the kind note. <3

~karmasoup

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

I need to pay attention more, or at least be around.