All's well that amounts to 4,000 words in a day...

[alexpgp]

I will leave the despeckling until tomorrow morning, because this particular job will need it!

In other news, I made the huge, horrific mistake of reading LJ friend joeymichaels's entry for this week's LJ Idol. Now, besides the usual burden of consciously avoiding writing anything of my own that remotely resembles it, I am saddled the added baggage of overcoming that nagging voice that insists one will fall way short of coming up with anything as good.

One thing I've noticed over the past couple of weeks is how I've started to focus hard—indeed, perhaps too much—on making the prompt the central idea of whatever I write, and while this kind of result certainly has nothing wrong with it, the approach runs the risk of my unnecessarily restricting my possibilities. Worse, as my effort becomes more concentrated, I run the risk of trying so hard that I derail myself and success becomes impossible.

It has been a long day, salted rather liberally with long moments of frustration. It's time to lighten up.

Cheers...

Comments

[edith-jones.livejournal.com]

I always make an effort not to read any other LJ Idol piece until I've written my own. It usually means a couple of days of avoiding my FL, as I picked up half my friends at Idol. Tonight I'm too tired to pick anything up from anyone and am only up because I need to pick up my son from work at 1 a.m.

Hope you get a piece submitted without accidental plagiarism; it can be hard, I know.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting balance (or lack thereof), that's for sure.

I do recall reading a few of the early entries a few weeks ago (for "Deconstruction") because I was completely bereft of any ideas at all, or even of a good understanding of what was meant by the word, and ended up going off on my own tack anyway.

I'm sure I'll muddle through, somehow.

Cheers...

[joeymichaels.livejournal.com]

You're LJI entries are consistently excellent. Seriously, I don't think I've ever read one that was even average, much less below average. I am absolutely confident that your entry this week will be up to your usual high quality!

I also try not to read entries before I write mine. Its a burden trying not to write about something. The solution, for me anyways, is sometimes to just rip something out that's almost deliberately the same just to get it out of my system and then to write my actual piece.

Unless the attempt at an identical piece is really good and different enough that it doesn't bother me. :D

Anyhow, thanks for the compliment and I look forward to reading your Week 5 entry!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the uncommonly kind words. I'm still flailing wildly in the murk for a hook upon which to hang a tale, but I share your confidence.

Your solution is interesting. After a lifetime of conventional education/training, I still have to accustom myself to the idea that some products ought to be created with the express up-front knowledge that they're not intended for prime time, which is food for a more general discussion.

Cheers...

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yes that is an unfortunate side effect Joeymichaels has on many of us /:

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Amen, and precisely why it's important to keep in mind that the goal of LJ Idol is not to outperform everyone in your tribe during any given week, but to outperform the person with the lowest score!

Cheers...

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Quite true! And why everyone panics when the lowest score catches up with the bulk of the pack as it did last week!