Work Room - Week 3

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

The results from Week 2 are up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/958187.html

as is the new topic: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/958277.html

Given how busy December tends to be, I've even given you the best gift of all, more time. Use it wisely.

But that's not all. This week I'm giving you something extra in your stocking - A Mentor!

The Mentor program, for those who haven't been around in a season that has had them is where I extort threaten convince someone to come into the Work Room to give advice and be around to answer any questions people might have, and generally bounce ideas off.

This week, it's the Co-Winner of Exhibit B mini-season - and the person who was the fastest in Idol history to join the 100 Weeks Club! Give a warm welcome to your Mentor for the week - the one and only lrig_rorrim!

***

Ok. I’ve got some important advice for you intrepid Idolers. You ready? Here we go.


1. Reread your entry. Then reread it again. Read it aloud. Then have a friend read it. And then another friend. Rope as many friends into this as you can.


That’s it. That’s the big piece of advice.


Perspective is incredibly valuable. I’m not saying you should be an authorial shape-changer, shifting your style and content and presentation based upon the whims of a mercurial audience. I’m saying that writing is a kind of magic trick - we have images in our mind and we want to smush those images onto a screen in words for others to read. And what images will they have in their minds when they’ve seen the words? Is it what you were aiming for? Could it be closer? The more feedback you get from other people, the more you can perfect that magic trick.


Also, your friends will catch your typos and stray commas and awkward sentences. You’re going to miss some. Trust me on this one.


I said that was it, but really this singular piece of advice comes with two important corollaries.


1a. Learn how solicit good and useful feedback.
1b. Learn how to apply the feedback that you get.


So! Finding people to read your stuff is one thing - that’s what this space can be used for, after all! But those corollaries? Yikes!


How do you solicit good and useful feedback? So often what we get is “I liked it!” or “That was good” or “Eh, it wasn’t my thing.” Now, there’s useful information in those statements, but not a lot.


The first trick is to make sure to ask your readers good questions. It’s nice to know if they like something, but it’s way more useful to know that a sentence wasn’t at all grammatically correct, or that one of your characters is super unlikeable (especially if that wasn’t your intention!).


So, set the tone when you ask folks to read a thing. Ask for help spotting typos and awkward sentences, but also ask questions like, “What do you think happened, in your own words.” If you’re going for a specific tone, whether that’s melancholy or funny or introspective, ask how the piece made your reader feel. Did they get invested in the characters? Was there any point in the entry where their attention started to wander a little bit? I think you start to get the picture!


And what about 1b, learning how to apply the feedback you get? You don’t want to twist yourself into knots trying to make things perfect for everyone, and you’re operating on a pretty tight schedule here. Here’s the secret to revision and applying feedback: it’s not all-or-nothing. You don’t have to take every piece of advice someone gives you about improving an entry and try to apply it. You get to pick and choose. Someone may have fantastic sentence-level feedback for you but be awful about seeing the bigger picture. Maybe non-fiction memoir really isn’t their thing, and so their input on style just isn’t going to work for you this time. That’s ok! The trick is to get enough perspectives on a thing that you understand what’s generally working and what isn’t.


And how do you fix those things that aren’t working? Well, sometimes your readers will have ideas on that score - more often they won’t, or won’t have time to articulate them clearly.


Take what input you’ve got, and remember that every single word of your entry has an impact - sometimes that impact is negative, so you may need to cut a few of those words out. Remember that the things which are so clear in your head aren’t necessarily always making it to the page. If readers are unclear about something important, it might be because you haven’t actually put the words on the page yet. Add words. Reread. Take some words away. Read it aloud. And if you’ve got the time, get even more eyes on it. Creation is an iterative process.


And when that deadline rolls around and it’s time to put your link in the topic post and share it with an even wider audience, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself. And then go read! All these writers, working with the same general constraints, coming up with so many different angles on the same prompt... it’s amazing. You’re all amazing.


Go forth and be amazing. I’ll be here, to answer questions, read and offer feedback on works in progress, and do what I can to help.

Comments

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

So I did what everyone probably did when they saw the topic: I googled it, pretty certain it was a baseball term (it was).

I have already developed a figurative meaning aside from a literal brushback pitch:

Saying/doing something so hurtful in order to purposely push someone you care about away.

I just have no idea what to do with it for myself, just yet. xD

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

And just to save y'all the googling:

Brushback pitch: a pitch aimed close to the body so that the batter must step back to avoid it.

That's what the internet tells me, anyway. A baseball thing. Where are your minds going with this one?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Woot! lrig_rorrim!

"Creation is an iterative process." Just saying.

I also googled it, before reading comments. It seems to me brushback must have come from somewhere before baseball, like baseball must have grabbed the word from somewhere, like a brushback is a species of a wild animal. Maybe a porcupine.

Or I guess it could mean the act of brushing someone back from the plate. But critters are more fun to think about than baseball.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Or threatening to do so effectively enough that the other person retreats in self-preservation.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I think I'd personally be tempted to write some fake etymology for the phrase, with the origins steeped in weird.

Or perhaps to create a new Brushbacked Pitcher critter. Something like that. Or possibly both?

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Fake etymology steeped in weird?

Nah, that sounds nothing like you. :P

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I am SUPER UNPREDICTABLE. Sort of. Ok, not really. ;)

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is this possibility, too. :)

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think almost any kind of intimidation tactic or situation which pushes people apart could also work. It's figuring out the specifics that will be the tricky bit, I expect.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

The specifics are always the hardest part. I at least have an angle with which to look at it and that'll eventually spark something, I'm sure. :)

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I keep looking at "brushback" and my brain is thinking "brokeback."

But a brokeback pitch would be something altogether different.


::rimshot::

which, in context is also um... yeah.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

I have a baseball question.

Is there a penalty for the brushback pitch?

Anybody know a lot about little, little league? You know the youngest group?

Heading back to google.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Straight into the gutter with lots of juvenile references to pitching, catching, getting to third base, and possibly playing with balls. Clearly I need to re-think this brilliant plan.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

*reads downthread a bit* Naw, I think you and kathrynrose are on the same page here. ;)

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Oh, well that's a relief. At least if my mind's in the gutter, it's also in good company.

[wolfden.livejournal.com]

I would just like to share that I said to Chris, "The Topic this week is Brushback Pitch."

He said "That's a baseball pitch thrown to the inside to make the batter step back."

I'll be over here in shocked amazement. I said "how the @&#* did you know that?"

He said "because I'm a manly man and I know things about sports."

So after I got up from rolling round laughing, I asked how he really knew. He said he has no idea.

Seriously, I'm not sure he could pick a baseball out of a line up.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

This is what the mighty wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushback_pitch) had to say: "While the brushback can be an effective part of pitching, the home plate umpire may warn or eject a pitcher he feels is intentionally trying to hit a batter."

I'm afraid I'm not your go-to source for Little League stuff, though. Hopefully someone else will chime in!

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

You're both VERY high minded (ahem). There are gutters on the roof, too!

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

...what happens if I make a negative impact on purpose because that's what a brushback pitch is supposed to do?

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. I really appreciate this. Love Wikipedia!

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer - I know very little about baseball.

I do, however have the google fu.

From what I read, the thing is the pitcher can't actually *hit* the batter, so there's a tendency for a batter to move closer to the middle of the strike zone to easier reach pitches that lean to the other side. This is intimidating (apparently) to the pitcher, because the pitcher can get in trouble for hitting the batter with the ball.

So the pitcher uses the brushback pitch to intimidate the batter and back them up to free up the space for throwing the ball.

I read that the umpire might "warn" the pitcher for pitching too close, but tehre is no penalty for the pitch itself.

I'd think the pitcher would have to be pretty good, though, because if you screw up, you'd end up hitting someone.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd say that's right in the PTW wheelhouse. :)

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm.... reading your explanation of it, this prompt really makes me think about pushing people's boundaries. There's lots of room for interpretation there.

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

I would be thrilled to read a list of other Manly Man Things Chris Knows (or makes up, 'cause why not). Heh.

Maybe we can blame trivial pursuit for this one. It seems like the kind of thing that would be a sports category question...

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

... you've got to aim for that sweet spot of negative impact which isn't toooo bad. You know, just before someone presses charges.