You've all heard me mention therealljidol, and I post stories for it regularly. But it's been a while since I talked about what it is.

If you can imagine what might happen if you crossed a writing competition with "Survivor," you might get some sense of what Idol is like. It's mostly about the writing—lots of writing, with a lot of people reading your entries and you reading theirs. It's a great chance to grow as a writer. You'll write things you've never tried before, and you'll learn from the other writers—even if it's just by reading how other people approach the assigned prompts. This season, I persuaded bleodswean, tsuki_no_bara, and my husband, rayaso, to give it a try. People discovered my husband's evilly funny sense of humor and he held in for a good six months as a beginner! tsuki_no_bara finished in the Top 25 her first time out, and bleodswean is still in it. I've had the chance to read amazing things by all three of them, things that never would have existed but for Idol. Thanks to the community, I've also made a lot of really need friends. :)

It's an open community, so anyone can join. There will be future happenings down the road—most likely mini-seasons, which are a lot of fun. We have lots of writers, but also have members who are just there for the stories! To get a sense of what some of the writing is like, this week's entries are all here. I hope they inspire you to try Idol out for yourself. We would love to have you. :D