LJ Idol: a writing rollercoaster with iffy brakes

The curtain drops on some contestants tonight http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/1008660.html

Not only will they be eliminated from the competition, but they will be denied the joy of participating in an Idol first! Our own version of Dune's Pain Box.

Are *you* ready to stick your hand in????

***

I went to Spoon last night.

Shonen Knife is coming up this Saturday.

The Shins are next week.

Which sounds like a busy music calendar after a *long* drought. It also sounds like shows that (had they come to the area) I would have gone to see 10-20 years ago. :) (apparently Spoon did a show, as an opening act, 10 years ago. But it was their first time headlining here. Which is just weird...)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Go see more live music! Don't have to stop and try to come up with 5 bands you've seen for the next viral meme... have them ready!!!

Damn. What a rough week for some old favorites.

Then again, that's what it's like at this stage - everyone going is a blow.

And what a blow it was...

Although in the last few minutes, I had a bit of a surprise when I refreshed... a tie for that last spot!!

Leaving us this week are

cheshire23
and
zhent

Thank you so much for coming out this season. I really hope we will continue seeing you around to cheer on your favorites, as well as in the Home Game so we can continue to check out your work!

That final spot looked like it was filled, but as I said, at the last minute, that changed and it tied up. I keep saying that every vote matters, and to make sure to get out and support your favorites. And it keeps being proven accurate.

The tie is between lordrexfear and tamaraland!

As usual in a Sudden Death Write-Off situation, it's an Open Topic. You can write anything you want to write. But bring your A-game, because one person isn't walking away at the end!

The deadline for those in the Write-Off to link their entries is Tomorrow, Wednesday May 3rd at 9pm EDT in the sub-thread I will be creating below.

Good luck to both of you!

There are Idol traditions that stretch out over a decade. There are some that haven't been around *that* long, but have still managed to get some history behind them.

They are the things that veterans are on the look out for, and they know how to navigate. Or at least have some theories about what to do.

Then there is the twist this week.

This is BRAND NEW. You have a front row seat to it.

It's called the Blind Box.

You put your hand in, and pull out a topic.

Since this is the internet, and you can't literally do that - you are going to be sending me an email to clauderainsrm@gmail.com

There are 4 topic choices.

When you email me, I will assign them in the order the emails have been received. (The 1st person gets topic 1, the 2nd topic 2, 3 gets topic 3, 4 gets topic 4, the 5th person gets topic 1 and so on until everyone has been assigned a topic. If someone uses a bye, that will count for that spot and we skip over it and fill the next number.


You will have until Sunday, May 7th at 7pm EDT to link your entry to this thread. Which means the sooner you have your topic, the sooner you can get started trying to figure out what you are going to do with it!

Have fun!

Obviously, there is going to be a lot of talk about the Blind Box. http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/1010245.html

What does it mean? What's actually in the box? If you survive, does it mean that you are a potential human?

And by all means, this would be the place to discuss the ins and outs and dealing with the topics.

But I was thinking about something recently and this is *also* a good place to talk about it.

Context is greater than constructive criticism. (LJ didn't like me using the symbol, so I'm spelling it out)

What the hell am I talking about, since I just posted that from left field... Idol has had a lot of discussions over the years about the idea of opt-in/opt-out for constructive criticism and how important it is to be able to give advice that is actually constructive as well as being able to accept it. It's important to the development of "your craft" to be able to see what someone is offering, pick it apart and take from it what you actually find useful.

We also covered that some people just aren't that interested in "the craft". They just want to tell stories, and maybe shove you in a locker when you start sounding too full of yourself with your discussion about technique. ;)

But there's a subsection that I don't recall ever really touching before - maybe it felt self-explanatory at the time, or maybe I just never thought about it too much. I'm thinking the latter.

And it comes down to what I wrote before: context is greater than constructive criticism.

If someone is writing a story about a family of dragons who set off on a quest to slay the evil Princess, then the conversation of "Do they want constructive criticism" is going to come up.

If someone is talking through the pain of losing their Mom. Or something real and personal - you probably shouldn't be wondering "Should I tell them that it would be stronger if they tightened up their middle paragraph?"

If you *are* asking, the answer is "No", not unless they specifically are asking for it. If they are, then absolutely go for it. If they aren't though... yeah, that's probably not going to end well.

That's not an "Idol rule" or even an "Idol suggestion". I think that is kind of a life thing.

To the best of my knowledge, it hasn't come up this season. We *kind of* have had it happen in the past though, but I wasn't thinking about it in this way. You never know though, when it may come in handy!