Here it is, another Monday, the beginning of another week, and another new prompt for LJ Idol. I'm a bit disgusted with LJ Idol right now. It's quite obvious that stories are not voted on because of their merit, and that some people have a cadre of outside friends who will vote for them, no matter what. I fully admit that I have three outside friends who are kind enough to read my works and vote for them, and I appreciate each one of them. But my friends also are voting because they feel what I put out there is tight, cohesive, fits the challenge, and is good writing. If not, they would let me know because that's the kind of good friends they are.
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It's not SUPPOSED to be a personality contest, but it certainly seems to be one. That's very disturbing to me - I think the writing should be voted on by merit - how cohesive is the story, how much fluff could and should be edited out of it, and how well was it told. I've been up against some powerhouse writers over the years, and there are some excellent ones in this group, which is the only thing keeping me in it. |
It seems, however, that this group, a group I really wanted to believe was above that, is actually more of a personality contest, not a writing contest. That's a great disappointment to me, although not entirely unexpected. I am the new kid, and that's only going to carry me so far. I've now got two strikes against me, and that both saddens and angers me because I know what I've written has been strong, cohesive, and (usually) well edited. I'm certainly not expecting to hit everyone's buttons every week, but I'm also not going to push on friends and family to vote for me either. If I did that, I would make it nothing more than a beauty contest - a Miss America in words. I've done that, and it's not as much fun as many people think it might be.
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In 2007, Miss Teen Colorado won Miss Teen USA. That didn't happen when I was participating. Of course, I was also participating in the days of B/W photography, bathing suit competitions (which I was glad I didn't have to do), and many ridiculous, rather sexist attitudes. |
When I was in High School, I was a finalist for Miss Teenage Colorado, the precursor in many ways to Miss Colorado, which was a stepping stone to Miss America. I didn't come from a pageant background, I only gave it a shot because the first step to getting into the running was passing a day-long standardized test of basic subject matters - history, mathematics, English and other school subjects. It was a pretty rigorous test, and I wanted to see how I matched out against others of my age group - curiosity, mostly.
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Standardized testing really isn't a great indicator of subject matter knowledge and/or intelligence. At the time I was in school, it was mandatory and used often, so I was curious how I would rank compared to others of my general age. |
Well, I passed the test. I don't know how high or low I placed, but I was one of the 20-25 who were moved on to the next level which is where we actually had to perform for the talent portion, answer questions, and parade in evening gowns. We were all photographed, interviewed, and televised for the dance portion, and it was fun. It was a good time. I played the cello, of course, and I made it through the semi-finals to the finals. Mom made me a lovely deep blue velvet evening gown and I once again did the required song and dance stuff. The eventual winner wasn't me - LOL. It was a truly lovely girl who read a poem for her "talent". She got to go to the nationals, but I don't think she got any higher. Me, I returned to normal life as a high school student once again.
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I wonder if a system of ranked voting might not work better in this instance. Each participant being limited to five votes per time, ranking them in their votes and submitting them to the moderator who would then crunch the numbers to come up with a winner for the challenge. |
Why does this come to mind? Because after the initial examination, the judging was subjective and not really based on talent. I didn't really mind, because I wasn't into the whole "pageant" aspect of it, but part of the prize would have been a scholarship for college and my parents could have used that assistance. That's the way I'm feeling about LJ Idol right now. I'm gritting my teeth, thinking about the next prompt, and contemplating pulling out of the competition completely, because the voting seems to be based on number of people each contestant knows who will vote for a contestant's story, not actually reflecting the person's writing skill.
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I just needed to vent because I'm a bit upset at the format. Still, I walked in eyes wide open, and have no-one but myself to blame. So I'll continue until I'm either voted off or simply don't have the time to participate and pull myself out. |
OK, I've now had the opportunity to vent, and that's what I needed to do. Now I'll do a re-set in my life and look at the current prompt (lalochezia, for those who might be interested), and think about whether I want to continue writing for the group or not. I'm coming to the busiest time of my year now, and my time will be quite limited. Do I have the desire and the ability to put my best out there when I'm crunched for time? I don't know. I'll have to think about it. I love writing, and I love writing to a prompt, so I'll at least do the current challenge, but I have to think seriously about whether I can or even want to continue on with the group right now. On that note, I'm out of here. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow.
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