Work Room - Week 0

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Greetings Idolers! The Week 0 topic has been posted - (for newbies) http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/947581.html (for veterans) http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/947738.html

This is the first Work Room of the season, so I'll explain a few things for those who don't know.

A Work Room is your space to bounce around ideas with each other, talk out writing related issues, and generally help each other out with problems you may encounter. It's the place, to borrow a phrase from Tim Gunn, to "make it work".

If you want to talk about "craft" in general - this would be a fantastic place to do that. The Green Rooms tend to be more light-hearted (although they don't *have* to be) and so a dedicated space was created for those purposes.

***

I call them "topics", because that gets some people thinking in a rigid manner, and I think it's important to break out of that. They are more like jumping off points. You are free to take them anyway you want to take them.

With "Introduction", I'm sure there will be some 'My name is so-and-so", which is fine, as long as it's well done. But remember, this is the first time a lot of these people are going to be reading your work. This is the time when it's important to let people to start seeing "Why should I be reading this writer for the rest of the season?" There's a lot of entries to get through, if you get them reading early, that's half your battle right there to get them to come back for more!

Most of all though, as I say at the end of every Topic thread HAVE FUN!

Comments

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

First?

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Really, a quarter of an hour after the Work Room was posted? Where is everyone?

I dislike this first topic. I disliked the very first go around in Idol, because how do you "introduce" a life in one entry? And I disliked it in all the seasons that followed, because how do you re-introduce yourself to those who know you and introduce for the first time to those who don't, at the same time?

Well.

Well, at least this is not a topic you have to approach ten different ways to find the one that works, because the obvious approaches are not acceptable. Here it is more choosing the one approach from tens acceptable ones.



---
I am doing some work in French and switching to typing in English is tough because of the different keyboard layouts. Learning to type in French is tough too, because you do it blindly at first.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Hey Gary - Since we're still in week 0, are sign-ups still open?

signups

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

THEY BETTER BE ! ! ! !
.
:-0
.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

They are usually open until the end of Week 0, so hopefully yes?

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sign-ups are still open. I will announce before they are about to close. (this is an optional week, so no reason to close them right now)

topic zero

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

.
"Introduction" is a wide-open word.
She introduced me to her mother's daughter.
I introduced you to the pleasures of cheese and crackers.
I'm sorry, we have not been introduced.
What was your introduction to
.
Do I just say who I am? Or talk about writing.
.
Both.
.
One. Other. You. Me.
.
Us.
.
.
:-)
.

Re: topic zero

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

We're peas of a pod.

Re: topic zero

[unmowngrass.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, we have not been introduced.

Or we were, but you weren't paying attention? ;)

[kschlotwrites.livejournal.com]

Introduction.

Hmm. Introducing myself?

Introducing people?

Introduced to a new idea?

So many possibilities. This is going to be interesting!

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Let the mind flow. Don't be constrained to a concept.

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

What'll be really intriguing to me is the broken topics.

The newbies/veterans deal...

which I almost think Gary is setting us up here. Remind us vets we suck and only newbies rule.

I'm kidding. I barely know new music and flock to the bands I know. Same with video games. Movies. I mean sure once in a blue moon that newbie pops up... but usually it's after that newbie has started to become a vet that you really notice them.

Anyways. Work, work to do... work that is work. In the past I have sometimes flipped a topic on it's head. It doesn't have to be what you automatically think of. Introduction is broad. I can introduce you to the politics of science fiction. or I can introduce you to the world of no one where there's a rabbit who eats eggs because he hates carrots. I can introduce you to me, or a facet of me. I ca be brutally honest, I can tell lies. I can write an introduction to an essay in which Topic prompts shall only supply ammunition for the next essay.

I think somewhere in there there's advice for new and old alike. Advice for me, advice for you, advice for everybody. Look under your chair! There's nothing there, I'm not Oprah.

[banana-galaxy.livejournal.com]

I like the separation between newbie/veteran. It'll be easier to determine who might be a bit more timid here to make sure we're more welcoming to so they feel at home.

How it'll play into the polls? No idea. But curious to see if it will have an impact there.

[kschlotwrites.livejournal.com]

Completely noob question: Is there a word count rule? A maximum or minimum amount of words?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Nope. No limit high or low.

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

I'll get my intro up after tutoring today! AW

[kschlotwrites.livejournal.com]

What do you do when you have a few different ideas for the topic? Do you write them all out and decide which on you like the best? Do you focus on one that might be easier to write, even if you think a different idea may be better?

I'm sorry. I think I'm a bit intimidated. I worry that my writing will be horrible, and that everyone will wonder why the hell I thought I could do it.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

LOL, I think everybody has faced that at one time or another :)

If I've got multiple ideas for a topic, I let 'em marinate in my head for a day or two to see if one captures my attention/imagination more than the others. If one does, that's the one I'll write.

BUT...

It doesn't always work in that square-key-in-round-hole kind of way. In that case, I sit down and start writing on another idea to see if anything sticks. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, I start writing on another one. Rinse and repeat.

Whatever idea which prompts me to keep writing is almost always the idea I choose. I figure it's the Universe's way of telling me to follow my hunches ;)

[lostin-thestars.livejournal.com]

This is always the hardest topic for me!!

[feritatum.livejournal.com]

This year I am trying, within the entries and the comments on the entries, to maintain character at all times.

This could get weird.

[jake67jake]

Can we ask technical LJ questions here?  I really want to work on my kindle, but i can't find how to link in the app. 

So new here the shine isn't off.

[unmowngrass.livejournal.com]

Hi!

I don't know the answer to your question, sorry, but the green room might be a better place, just coz it's more likely to be visible?

The workroom can have a bit of a weird flow to it -- everyone comes in here the day the topic is posted, and smashes ideas around until they've got something or just flails over the difficulty of it; then it tends to go quiet, almost deathly so... you can hear the wind blowing the tumbleweed about...; then on deadline day everyone who is still stuck for an idea is combing the threads like a mad person, seeing if something strikes them again... and either there will be a flurry of posts, or everyone will be doing it but no one will be posting about it because no one wants to admit that they're still stuck.

It's a fine place to ask questions if there are people here to answer them, though, or try the green room, or, tag the gary in it and see if he comes to your rescue /smile/

Waving a potential flag

[unmowngrass.livejournal.com]

I tried writing some notes on my entry today, longhand, when I had a spare 20 minutes. I encountered a problem I hadn't anticipated: my entry switches perspective quite a bit, and I don't know how to signify this, or whether it will read ok and stuff.

So I'm probably going to need a bit of help, but I'm not sure yet what, or how much. If I get a draft of my entry written tonight, I'd appreciate a beta-reader or two to go over it tomorrow, please? Depending on how it comes together when I actually write it up (and it may go through a couple of revisions just by myself), it will either need just a quick once over, or quite a bit of re-working, which I would then do on Thursday, +/- a final once-over after that.

Any takers?

Re: Waving a potential flag

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I can. Want to email me at intrikate [at] aol?

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Last year it came to me on posting day. I need my brain to do that sideways thing it does when the idea needs to come right now.

I even looked "introduction" up on dictionary.com.

Sideways

Now

Please!

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Last year it came to me on posting day. I need my brain to do that sideways thing it does when the idea needs to come right now.

I even looked "introduction" up on dictionary.com.

Sideways

Now

Please!

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Last year it came to me on posting day. I need my brain to do that sideways thing it does when the idea needs to come right now.

I even looked "introduction" up on dictionary.com.

Sideways

Now

Please!

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Last year it came to me on posting day. I need my brain to do that sideways thing it does when the idea needs to come right now.

I even looked "introduction" up on dictionary.com.

Sideways

Now

Please!