The Wheel has spoken and the prompt for this week is: 


Happy Detritus

The deadline to link your entry back to this post is Sunday October 12th at 7pm ET.

Have fun!

I posted in the comments section for the Voting, but for those who missed it, there was NO empty vial found this week. What does that mean? I guess that is, literally, for me to know and you to find out! ;)


But before we get on with that, we have to say goodbye to someone. Someone that we just said hello to recently!

Goodbye to fausts_dreamAt this point I will point out that we are this far in and still have 4 other "back into the game" options on the Wheel. Which seems ridiculous to me. But hey, it's not like I'm the one in charge here. The Wheel is.  ;)   I just work for it this time around!!  I hope you will stick around to see what opportunities it will spin next. 

(and of course with all of the chaos at the end of voting this time around, we came within a single vote of a 4 way tie!! So every vote matters!)

 This was the first week where the contestants not only voted on who to accuse, they also voted on who to give the antidote to!  

It's funny, because a lot of the votes I received for both seemed pretty divided between two people (for each), with a stray vote or two for others. It came down to a single vote in each. 

Let's see what you came up with - 

We've gathered to accuse someone with being one of the blood-thirsty killers, one of those blackhearted fiends that slither through the night!! 

But who do the majority believe is one of those dark forces? 

The assembled residents of LJ Idol Manor hereby accuse 

*drum roll* 

drippedonpaper 

The silence starts getting uncomfortable. So the group moves on to give someone the antidote. 

Again, this came down to a single vote.  The antidote goes to bleodswean !

In previous weeks, the antidote was consumed in private.  Now, it will be done in full view of everyone.  

She takes a big swig from the vial and almost immediately seems to have a lot more energy and vigor. It's as if she was given a new lease on life.... which, is accurate.   :) 

Congratulations contestants.  You thwarted the Killer(s)!   You didn't catch one, but you disrupted the plan! 

 I've been listening to people's comments and I asked the Wheel about an adjustment. There was a BIG item that is on the Wheel that I asked if I could just go ahead and bring it out now.  The Wheel said no.  Which, is probably smart. Let the Wheel have it's time to bring about the chaos on it's own schedule. 

The other idea was approved though.  

So the antidote is going to be working a little differently. Rather than it staying in the hands of one person, STARTING NOW,  that decision is going to be made by the group. 

Now you all have a stake in who lives and who dies.  It's not just the actions of the killer(s), you will be able to predict their next move and get ahead of them, or fail to protect the next victim! 
This will take place before the entry deadline, at the same time you are submitting accusations!  So you could actually stop the next death - if you guess the target right! 

Just add it to your accusation email (clauderainsrm@gmail.com).  Just make sure to let me know which choice is for which thing.  :D 

***

Everyone comes out to Idol for something different. I think that's one of the biggest concepts for people to try to get their heads around. A lot of them fail to do it, because it's easier to assume that everyone is here for the same reason you are.  Just like it's easier to think that everyone agrees on what is a good entry/who is the best/who "deserves" what.... these competing believes are at the center of Idol. It's part of what makes me love what has been created here over the last nearly two decades. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about why this special event is all twists... part of it was the one just before had hardly any - so it seemed like the next natural step.  People complained about the lack of twists. Be there are people who don't like that there are so many.  :D  Again, it's because people are here for different reasons... 

But all of you end up accomplishing the same thing - you write absolutely brilliant entries. Some is fiction. Some non-fiction or poetry... over the years pretty much anything you could think of to create in this space has been created!  

The twists were put in place early on for a couple big reasons - (1) to keep things interesting, not only for the contestants to keep you invested, but also the audience who wasn't playing. Also for me!   (2) to keep things fair. Especially early on in Idol there were people with massive, active friends groups. There were also people who came in knowing no one.  What was to keep someone coming in and just dominating the entire time with no hope for anyone else?  Twists. It keeps people on their toes and in a lot of cases it doesn't mean that it's the end of the road for anyone with a more supportive base. It just means that the majority of other contestants need to be OK with their winning.  :)  Which is it's own secret sauce! 

This time was different than most in that I didn't try to make things as fair as possible. I put everything on the Wheel to make it as chaotic as possible, as interesting as possible!  It's the one time when even I don't know what's going to happen next!! 

I came up with a bunch of ideas, and had the Wheel decide which ones were going forward and which were not.  There are some on the scrap heap that I loved and some that got through that I didn't.  But that's part of why I kept saying from the moment I came up with the idea, to every single step of the way before sign ups and again over the first couple weeks that this was going to be the Idol version of Calvinball!!! 

Honestly, we might end up with predictable winners. Or we might not!  My only real hope when it comes to that is that people keep using it as an excuse to write some fantastic entries, to create! Because that's the one thing that everyone can agreed on, that when you show up here you are going to be doing a hell of a lot of writing!!!  :)