slumber

I didn't get any sleep last night, so blame that.

Anyway, I'm not sure if you know of

hp_survivor, but, well, bloody brilliant RPG, right? And then there were other suggestions for adaptations of reality-based shows, too, and it got me thinking of what other possibilities there are.

I've only really watched Survivor, and then a bit of American Idol, so I thought of that. American Idol, Harry Potter style. Except, I'm sure you realize by now too, how will Draco showcase his singing capabilities on LJ?

The best thing would be to judge writing. And this is where Fandom Idol comes in. Which is, basically, working under the same notion as American Idol does, in that it's primarily a talent search, but this time, for writing. And for people in the fandom who are still relatively unknown but are incredibly good writers.

Mechanics:

So far, here's how I plan the timeline to go:

First, there will be a week of general try-outs, where people will post drabbles in the comments section of one post, and a group of extra judges will screen these drabbles. If they're good enough, they get to posting access to the community for the eliminations rounds.

Then there will be the first round of eliminations, which will take around a week or so. Drabbles are to be posted again, and extra judges will either say yes or no. Those who pass will go into the second round, where the number of people in has to be cut down to 32.

This is where the three judges come in. They will have to rank whoever's left and pick out the top 32 writers from the pile of double drabbles. This, I imagine, will take 2-3 weeks.

Once the top 32 have been chosen, there will be five weeks of writing challenges. Each week will have eight writers, and after they've posted their fics the judges will have their say on it, and then there will be a poll. The top two writers will move on to the next round. On the fifth week, the judges will choose eight of the past writers who didn't make it to the top two and give them a second chance (really much like American Idol) with another challenge. This time, the top four writers will move on to the final twelve.

This is actually where the real competition begins. I'm still deciding on the time frame, but the idea is that for every round, writers are given a certain genre/style/theme to incorporate in a fic with a minimum of 500 words. They put the fics up, the three judges scrutinize and give their comments, and time is set aside for voting. At the beginning of the next challenge, the writer with the least number of votes is eliminated, and the next week's challenge is given, and this goes on until there is only one writer left, and he/she will be the Fandom Idol.

So I've got the flow pretty much worked out. But I have a couple of problems, and I really will appreciate it if you all tell me what you think. (And yes, please do pimp this to whoever you can pimp this to.)

Problems:

1. Who will the judges be? Here I was thinking I'd either hold an application for the positions of Simon, Randy and Paula, but then where would the credibility of judges lie on? My own judgment? So I was thinking maybe reccers. Reccers are good, but which ones? And who would be inclined to accept this kind of job?

I realize that in the end, the judges will only really matter in that they're the ones who give out concrit (well, that matters a lot), but they're also the ones in charge of weeding out the competition, and that's really quite important.

2. Who qualifies for contestants? Naturally, in American Idol, established people don't join, but what quantifies being an "established member of the fandom" anyway? BNF-ness is a pretty sensitive subject, and frankly, I have little to no idea as to who BNFs are in each area of the fandom. How could contestants be qualified?

3. And this one really concerns me. Do you honestly think there will be people out there who will want to try out and join? I mean, is there a market in the fandom for this sort of thing? It's really just an idea, but I'd like to see it happen. (Like that other idea I had before. Wah.) Because, well, this thing would take plenty of effort. The winner would be writing a different fic per week for more than three months, see.

I really need to know what everyone thinks, because I want to do this, but if it is in any way infeasible, I guess I'd rather just not. And ask your flist to tell me what they think, too.