LJ Idol 6 Wk 16 Breaking the Fast

[puppetmaker]

So I have been mulling over this topic for most of the week. I have come up and discarded what seems to be about ½ million ideas for the topic. I have discussed it with my husband. I have written down a couple of drafts for this topic and that is as far as I have gotten. The ideas are abandoned on the way side because they don’t satisfy my muse.

This is one of the interesting aspects of doing Idol a couple of times. There are a lot of topics that are put up and I can just run with them right off the bat. The essay comes fully formed from my brow like Athena did from Zeus’ head (which must have hurt like heck if you ask me). Those weeks are a delight and a majority of my time writing essays for LJ Idol which is one of the reasons I sign up every year.

Other topics just sit there and stare at me. I have nothing. Not an inkling of how I am going to tackle the topic or in some cases tackle the topic again. I have been very careful not to repeat myself. I go back and reread what I had written before to make sure that I am not just rehashing something I have written before. I know people read from year to year and I figure that it will sound familiar to them so I try for the original. I don’t want there to be assumptions of what I am going to write about when certain topics come up.

Then something hits my fancy and I start working through the essay. By the time I am seated at the keyboard, I have a majority of it worked out in my head. It flows from my fingers to the electronic page in front of me.

Then there are the few times that I have nothing. I just can’t come up with diddly-squat. My muse is off in the corner starving for something, heck anything to feed on and create the essay. On a couple I have had the bye use and I have used it given my muse an out for the week. But as we get further into this, there are no byes. I have to come up with something or go to the home game for the rest of the season. And that is very frustrating. I can usually find something to talk about. Heck I have done panels at conventions with minimal knowledge that I googled the week before the panel and have been told that I sound like I know the most there. But there are times that the famine continues and the brain just won’t cooperate.

Then an idea starts to push forward and I look at the possibilities for the idea. I analyze what the possibilities are for the idea. My muse breaks her fast and feeds on the idea bringing back the flow of words to my brain which I put down on my electronic paper and send out for the world to read.

This is my entry this week for the LJ Idol competition. My muse seems quite happy with it.

Comments

[stormkitty.livejournal.com]

As hard as I've found some entries to write, it's still my first season. I couldn't imagine having to make sure not to repeat from seasons past. :)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Honestly it is only really hard when there is a topic repeat and I really really liked my previous take on the topic.

But it seems to resolve itself in the end.

Thanks for reading.

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

I like this take.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Honestly it came to me this morning while I was walking Caroline to the bus stop.

[beautyofgrey.livejournal.com]

Nice meta. :D

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was a flash of desperation that worked out very well.

[shadowwolf13]

Meta done right. :)

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. *grin*

[lawchicky.livejournal.com]

I had trouble with this topic too!

[kittenboo.livejournal.com]

I felt this way about the topic this week too, it just wasn't inspiring anything in me this week!

[baxaphobia.livejournal.com]

I can relate to this. Being my 3rd season in Idol has presented its challenges!

[mstrobel.livejournal.com]

I think one season would be enough for me -- I'd also be worried of recycling ideas too much and running out of stories to tell! When this season started I thought I'd run out of ideas by about week 10. I'm glad that hasn't happened.

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

OMG, this sounds exactly like me! I'm so glad I'm not the only one. Sometimes I feel like I'll come up with nothing and should just give up. Grins.

[joeymichaels.livejournal.com]

Ha! This is a meta post that actually works. I was all ready to discount it just for being meta, but it was entirely meta, focused on the topic, and very well done. Hurray!