Work Room - Week 6

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I invited a Mentor this week, and then I completely forgot to remind her.

She *is* coming - in Part 2 of the Work Room.

For Part 1, I'll remind you that there is a Sudden Death Write-Off: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/970905.html

and that the new topic is posted: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/971359.html

***

I will also let you know about some exciting news in the Idol-verse.

Friend of Idol Jason Franks SixSmiths was picked up by Caliber Comics and they have reissued the first volume: The Sixsmiths - Volume 1

"The Sixsmiths are a family of suburban Satanists who've fallen prey to the global recession. Now their life is in turmoil: the father Ralf needs to find a new job; the twins, Cain and Lilith, need to survive the horrors of the public school system; and wife Annie needs to keep them all sane and under budget. Meanwhile, their estranged elder daughter Jezabelle is having her own crisis of faith. Will the Devil rise to smite their enemies, or will he damn them with hellfire, wrath and underwater mortgage payment? Collects issues 1-4. A light hearted comedy satire for adults. Its The Simpsons meets The Osbournes. "


and closer to home, our own fourzoas now has an excuse that she byed-out in Week 5. She had work in this book that was just released

Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education

"With the election of our first black president, many Americans began to argue that we had finally ended racism, claiming that we now live in a postracial era. Yet near-daily news reports regularly invoke white as a demographic category and recount instances of racialized violence as well as an increased sensitivity to expressions of racial unrest. Clearly, American society isn’t as color-blind as people would like to believe. In Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education, contributors reveal how identifications with racialized whiteness continue to manifest themselves in American culture."

One of the things that I've loved seeing, over the years, is Idol writers (and "Idol-adjacent" in the case of Jason) putting their work out there!

So please, go and support your fellow Idol writers in this, and anything else that we have in the Idol store! http://astore.amazon.com/li0cd-20 (and if there is something I've forgotten, or you want to see added - of your own, an Idol-adjacent friend, or just something you really love and you think other people should check it out too). Be sure to mention it to me!

***

While we are waiting for the Mentor post though, first thoughts on the topic?

(and don't forget, those of you who are Patrons, you have the chance to *send me topics to use this season*. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70027 )

Comments

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

IS there a topic? I didn't see one for the regular competition. Just the Sudden Death one.

Ah, I see-- there was an ordering problem. You posted the work room before the topic. I'm not ready for that kind of confusion!

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Yep. Sorry about that!

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

First thought: "I can smell what The Rock is cooking!! --it's quinoa. Why is he cooking quinoa mid-match?"

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I guess Gary means "Face-Heel Turn" with the prompt, though I could argue that he could also mean "Heel-Face" Turn...

For those who don't have a clue, these are terms from the world of American Professional Wrestling, which since at least the Late 20th Century has involved the wrestlers and their support staff taking on the roles/persona of melodramatic/cartoonish characters... with traditional "Good vs Evil" aspects. In wrestling jargon, the Good Guys are "Faces", and the Bad Guys are "Heels"... but every once in a while, one of the wrestlers will switch sides. Thus, when a Good Guy goes Bad it's called a "Face-Heel Turn", or a "Heel Turn" for short... whereas when a Bad Guy redeems himself and goes straight it's called a "Heel-Face Turn", or a "Face Turn" for short.

So: The prompt usually means "Good person goes Bad", but I could argue that it wouldn't be much of a stretch to interpret it the other way, as "Bad person goes Good". Entirely up to you...

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

I have feels about the topic.

One. I now finally know what a "heel" is, hehe, or rather, "feeling like a heel" (like you did something wrong, perhaps unintentionally, and are a bad person because of it). This second expression may not be linked to wrestling, but it sort of explains why the bad guy is called a "heel". (The sports meaning is so far down in the dictionary I never read as far as it <3).

And two, I will never like wrestling. A sport where you go and use underhanded methods to cater to spectators? That is not an honest sport. Well, none of them currently really are, but I am still disappointed.

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

It's not just in wrestling (anymore), because these terms have been adopted by TVTropes.com (and I assume probably fandom types in general) and as a result, I'm familiar with them. Enjoy, y'all. xD

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeelFaceTurn
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FaceHeelTurn

[kristalsawesome.livejournal.com]

I actually went quite literal - a turn made on the heel of your foot, not the ball of your foot - for me a dancing reference, or maybe martial arts. And that works MUCH better with my storyline than yet another sports reference. Unless you want to put some horse-racing sporting references in there for me??

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

It's totally not just a sports reference, though. xD

The wrestling term represents a shift from being a villain to a hero (or vice versa). I posted some links upthread if you're interested. Your interpretation is helpful as well, and also made me think of someone "turning on their heel" (usually to walk out of a room quickly).

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

"Groan!Another sport's related prompt" That were my first thoughts on the topic.

The search for a villain who turned out to be good guy/girl later in my life for my non-fiction entry is on.

It could also be some turn of events which were going bad but suddenly take a turn for good.

Suggestions welcomed.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

Actually, a "heel turn" is usually interpreted as someone good turning bad... but I already made the argument that the term could be interpreted either way.

[rswndrlst.livejournal.com]

Groan! Another sport's related prompt

No but seriously ( ╯°□°)╯

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

Got any teachers that are still in your life? They seem to be good characters for whom attitudes might change over time. Though one might expect bad to good, rather than the other way around.

I feel like I should be able to think of a cheesy TV character that I liked as a kid who went from mysterious bad guy to good, but I'm drawing a blank.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

"Groan!Another sport's related prompt"

My first thought too, but "Professional" "Wrestling" is more theater than sport, and it's not really wrestling.

This is another prompt that is really hard not to hate, and I am out of byes.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

Personally, I read the topicthis way "he/she crisply turned on his/her heel and walked away without looking back".

...something of military abruptness in it.

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

Me too... as in "Insulted by Gary, she turned on her heel and flounced away in a huff." Hehehehe

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was briefly in a Naval cadet corps in my youth, and they taught us how to do close-order drill, including the "proper" way to perform an "About Face", which spins you around 180 degrees so that you are facing the opposite direction from how you started:

To perform the move, you must balance all the weight of your body on the heel of your left foot, while crossing the toe of your right foot to touch the floor behind you and push with sufficient force to turn your body around... so you literally pivot/turn on the heel of one foot.

So yes: the term could be used to describe a military "About Face" move...

[unmowngrass.livejournal.com]

Either this or dancing

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought, too.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Yup, me too.

I didn't go looking for sports references (especially those where extra words would have been needed), partly because the phrase had an obvious meaning without digging.

Also, because when I think sports (or much of anything, really), my mind does not go to the area of Fake Wrestling Spectacle.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Well, if somebody regularly switches from *good* to *bad* then back to *good* then *bad* again, you can't really get a handle on who that person really is, amirite? The person's basically playing everybody.

You're welcome :D

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

TV Tropes says the issue you're describing is usually called a "Heel-Face Revolving Door"... but yeah, whether you're talking "Good Guy gone Bad" or "Bad Guy gone Good", would you ever *REALLY* trust someone like that?

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I've been seeing comments about people not liking these sports references Gary has been giving as prompts. I get that -- not all of us, including myself, are die-hard sports fans so we wouldn't get a reference which would be obvious to a diehard sports fan.

Given that it's Idol's 10th anniversary, I understand the prompts going down Memory Lane. if you've been around long enough, you've seen a TON of changes in the way it's played. At one point Idol was considered the ultimate long-distance writing *match*, if you will, especially when it came down to the final 10 and people's competitive spirit overshot anything and everything.

But that's just it: Idol has always been a competitive game, just like hockey or wrestling or baseball. It's fallen off that bandwagon the last few seasons, so I daresay that the prompts we've been getting lately hearken back to that *competitive spirit* time, that's all.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with all of that, but add one more thing, that I don't think can be said strongly enough.

There's a reason why I said that I was pretty sure the "sports-based" (as in "having a background in a sports term but actually a part of culture at this point with a much wider meaning) topic were done from the current season topic list - and then used this one, is because "sports" are things where people compete.

Is professional wrestling an athletic activity? OMG yes. Absolutely.

Is it any sort of "competition" or sport where the outcome is based on ability? (rather than pre-determined/scripted) No. It's incredibly athletic stagecraft. Which is why you have things like a "heel turn". It would be far more accurate for people to be saying "Urgh - another 'acting' topic". :D

[dreamwriters.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough i saw the prompt and instead my reaction was "oh another song prompt" haha. Though admittedly from a wrestling-themed album The Mountain Goats - Heel Turn 2 (https://youtu.be/bKVY5_FB2i0)

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

(honestly, that was my inspiration for it

Although I'd heard it elsewhere many times before)

[rswndrlst.livejournal.com]

I cheated on idol and just competed in my first poetry "slam" and got the lowest score, I'm super discouraged. The odds were against me, I was drawn to go first and in an unfamliar city but I'd convinced myself I had a chance of winning and so I'm trying to remind myself that rejection is all part of being an artist and that I should be proud I finally actually did it

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

I loved your poem btw and it is a wonderful work. Votes actually are very relative, it very well could be that people who like poems couldn't get time to read your entry.

[kschlotwrites.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I ever posted in a work room thread. Hmm....

So, I had an idea in my mind for this week. I had a setting, main character, and motivation. But, when I went to write nothing fit.

Now, I'm considering writing something non-fiction. It will be a first for me in this competition. Well, kind of. The topic of needing the struggle to live, was about my battle with depression, but from the point of view of depression. This entry forming in my head won't have that outside voice. It will have mine. I just hope it works.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I need a quick response here, because I have a couple hours to myself while Mike is out helping KFP make his Pinewood Derby car at a friend's house.

Of the two ideas I have for addressing this week's topic do you prefer:

1) How parenting sometimes forces you to play the bad guy, and how, in particular, I was wracked with guilt after having spanked KFP once on the bottom just because I was tired.

2) How I'd always seen my family history as promoting positive social change, having grown up on stories of my Quaker ancestors speaking out against slavery. Recently, I discovered that another branch of my family not only fought for the Confederacy (a fact my grandmother did share) but also owned a plantation and had 7 slaves!

If I don't get a timely response, I may just start working on No. 2, because it is a lot different than what I'd imagine other people are probably writing this week.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Me, personally, I think the second would be more interesting? Just because it's such a shocking revelation to learn about that side of the family. And how different it is from how you were ultimately raised. :)