I mentioned this in another thread but I’m rather excited about it, so I thought it warranted its own dedicated thread.
The Idols season started here in South Africa in the beginning of August. I decided to use some of my free time and some of my pent-up writing frustrations, and started a fan blog a few weeks into the season. At first, it was mainly just an exercise in writing - I mentioned a while ago that I was suffering writer’s block, and thought that if I had something specific to write about, I’d be able to get some words out of my head and onto the screen. Luckily, it worked, and I started adding stuff each week. Of course, no one knew about it, so no one was reading it, but that didn’t really matter to me. But eventually, I thought, hey, I’ll drop a line in the official Idols forum touting my website. I even managed to snag a tiny link on their fansite link listing. That drew a few hits and some very positive comments (including one calling for the firing of one of the current Idols columnists and the hiring of me in his place 
)
Because I actually now had people reading the blog, I thought I should put a little effort into making it look a little nicer. So I emailed an Idols editor and asked him if it was OK if I used pictures from the Idols site on my blog. I sent him a link so that he could verify that it wasn’t some spam-riddled website, and that I wasn’t using it for any commercial gain, and he wrote back saying that he thought my site was great, and that my writing was excellent, and added that I was more than welcome to use the pictures. So I added some pics to the site. The next day, I got an email from someone congratulating me on getting a mention on the Idols site. At first I assumed that they meant the fansite listing, but then I decided to see if there wasn’t something more.
Sure enough, there was an article on the front page with a very complimentary review of my site (“tightly written” and “this is one blog worth checking out”). I was thrilled. Emails started pouring in complimenting me on my site (and sometimes agreeing with my opinions). And then I thought, let’s see how far I can take this!
So I emailed the editor again, and thanked him for the great write up. I also mentioned that I would love to add more content, but there was only so much I
could write about the Sunday shows and the results shows. Was there any way I might get access to some “behind the scenes” information?
Almost immediately, he emailed me back. He could probably get the publicity guys to invite me to the Live Spectaculars and the Results Shows, as well as arrange interviews with the Top 12 contestants. Would I be interested?
What a silly question. I said yes, of course, and today I got an email from the head of Idols publicity inviting me to Monday’s results show. I jumped at the chance, and he emailed me back with the times and what I was supposed to do, as well as an invitation to the post-show press conference.
Well, my bravery had gotten me this far, I figured it couldn’t hurt to push it a little farther. I emailed him again, thanking him and basically asking him if I could show up a little earlier to get some info on what goes into the production of a results show. He pointed out that Monday’s show was probably not the best forum for that, considering it’s the final “Top 24” show, but that I could come to rehearsals and live spectaculars to get a sneak peek at what goes on behind the scenes. The way this is going, I think my chances are pretty good at getting a season press pass to the show, and will get all kinds of chances to check things out, and keep on writing about them.
The best part of this for me, oddly, is the fact that I would normally never have the courage to even make the not-so-subtle suggestions that I did. But I summoned up all of my courage, took a giant leap, and it’s all turning out amazingly well. And the very best part is, people are actually reading my
writing, and enjoying it!
Of course, now I’m a little terrified at the idea of actually going through with all this, but then again, I was terrified when I asked for behind-the-scenes information, so what do I have to lose?
