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.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

And finally, this is another topic that needs to be turned on its head, but not obviously, not the heel-face turn, like ellakite suggested, because it would still be a reference to this dishonest sport.

Hmm, an interesting challenge.

[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??

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

Well, you have the right to interpret the phrase any way you wish to -- another person has already indicated that the phrase could be used to describe an actual sudden turn of the body on the heel of one foot, which can be done in certain martial arts or forms of dance.

As for me... well, a critical character in my saga is someone who underwent a "Heel-Face" turn: In their early life they were an utterly vicious and self-serving son-of-a-bitch, but after a critical event they spent the rest of their life trying to destroy the main villain of my saga. I recently realized that the character who did the "heel-face turn" would occasionally do some *VERY* unpleasant things in his fight against the "big bad" of the saga... and I'm considering posting a tale where this "hero" does something very nasty in order to advance his cause against the main villain...

[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

[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.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thanks. The links are helpful.

[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.

[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]

I learned the term from TV Tropes as well... but as you (and they) note, while the term may have originated in American Wrestling, it is now being used in quite a lot of other forms of media/entertainment and is not strictly limited to wrestling...

[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.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Oh! Yeah..my mind has been mixing the two things(good & bad) up since morning. Thanks for pointing it out. I need to remember this.

[rswndrlst.livejournal.com]

Groan! Another sport's related prompt

No but seriously ( ╯°□°)╯

[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...

[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?

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Misery loves company ;) *passes on some freshly baked cookies*

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

What's scarier is knowing people like this IRL. Some of them, I think, don't realize what they're doing because they're just acting in the moment. OTOH there are also people who are quite aware of what they're doing and don't care how it may affect others. They're the ones you have to watch out for. They're also the ones which pique my conspiracy theorist, LOL.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOLOLOL, great example!

[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.