Talk:Total Drama Island: For Your Entertainment

Final Three Guessing Contest
Post your guess of who you think will be in the final three. You can only change your guess once somebody in your guess has been eliminated. Please make sure to leave your signature so I can see when you posted the guess, since only the person who posted the correct final three first will win. If somebody in your guess has been eliminated, feel free to guess again and just strikethrough your old guess. The contest ends obviously once you find out the final three. I'll determine a prize then.

Discussion
I love how you draw your characters!They are so nice.I look forward to reading this story.TDASUPERFAN12 (talk) 03:50, August 3, 2010 (UTC)

This looks so good! I can't wait! Hiding Oreos in her bra. 03:11, May 1, 2011 (UTC)

'''Chapter One is up! '''Sorry it's late... I promised it'd be up yesterday but I got really caught up in trying to do homework while watching the American Idol finale so I just didn't have the time. I'm so excited to hear if anybody actually reads this! If you're shocked at it's length, this is actually what I think will be about the average length of a chapter for this story. If you spot any obvious errors, feel free to point them out. Freefalling Lilacs is way too boring for a cool signature. 02:51, May 27, 2011 (UTC)

Hey it's Gossip again, and I loved the opening chapter. It gave me something to read while I camped out for Lady Gaga on Friday! It was so funny. I am in love with Rachel, she reminds me of a female Chris, so I wonder how they'll be getting along. Now to the contestants, I am head over heels for Zack, Avery, Elena, Issac, Camille, and Cara. Also Risty, she has to be my favorite character right now. She is so fiesty. I just love her.

Can I say if Irina and Paul get together, I will love it. I saw their character models and they would be cute together. But I shouldn't be jumping to conculsions. The story just began! Now my thoughts on the first person going home, I will have to say Josh. I just think that shyness with lead to his dismise. I can't wait for the next chapter! So excited!

I'm super excited to read this, so you know. I haven't had time, yet, but I'll post a comment when I can get to it. Sprinklemist hasn't changed his signature in a long time. 20:45, May 30, 2011 (UTC)

I finally found time to read chapter 1. You're off to a promising start, not that I expected anything less from what I've seen of your writing to date. As for the story itself, there usually isn't much to say about the first chapter of a competition story, since said chapter will normally be little more than a meet-and-greet (just like in the canon TDI). As I think I've mentioned elsewhere, I like how you didn't just blow through the intros with just a couple of lines per contestant, like so many competition stories do.

I did notice that several of the contestants seemed more than a little similar to canon characters; but I assume that's by design, with the in-universe justification that Chris would want the contestant roster to include certain archetypes. That would be why, for example, the vast majority of Survivor contestants are now actively scouted and recruited, and I can well imagine Chris and his producers doing the same thing.

As for the chapter length, it clocks in at about 7000 words (excluding the theme song description), which is getting up there; but I, for one, don't think it's excessive. (I expect the chapters of my own competition story to mostly fall in the range of 4000-7000 words.)

In summary, I liked it, and I plan to stay with it, which I'm sure comes as no surprise to you. Gideoncrawle I have a song to sing, O!  Sing me your song, O!  A wandering minstrel, I-- 06:38, June 7, 2011 (UTC)

It's finally begun! This was very funny story, and the comment that Oprah could take over the world if she wanted to is... not implausible. Keep it up, and you should have a great story for the whole Wiki to enjoy.

However, the line breaks between dialogue aren't very good. There has to be more space between paragraphs, otherwise you'll have the dreaded Wall of Text on your hands.-I know you little libertine.  I know you're a cannonball  16:05, June 13, 2011 (UTC)

The spacing problem TDIRM refers to is caused by the extraneous formatting information that the wiki software sometimes adds when you paste in text. Unfortunately, once it's in there, all you can do is strip it out manually. I'm doing a little experimenting in an attempt to determine the conditions that cause this unwanted formatting to be added, and to see if there's a way around it. Gideoncrawle I have a song to sing, O!  Sing me your song, O!  A wandering minstrel, I-- 06:09, June 14, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for all the feeback everybody. I'll be working more with the line breaks as more chapters get uploaded. The formatting on this site is kind of difficult, so my options were either this or have the equivalent of about three line breaks in between each paragraph which would make the chapter seem even longer than it already does. I'll see what I can do next time I update though.

Also, I had missed posting the chapter last week because I'd actually lost power due to a storm while I was typing and my computer had shut down. This somehow corrupted the file (or something similar to that) and I had to rewrite the upcoming chapter from scratch. Chapter Two will be posted tomorrow though for anybody wondering. Freefalling Lilacs is way too boring for a cool signature. 03:10, June 15, 2011 (UTC)

Can't wait! I wanna see how Josh is going to react to a bunch of cameras in his face :)

Formatting problems
Lilac, I may have an answer to the formatting problem. It looks like the wiki's rich text editor is introducing the extraneous formatting information when you paste in text from word processing software. To avoid this, switch the Edit window to Source mode before pasting. After you've pasted in your text, you can switch back to WYSIWYG mode (i.e. the rich text editor) if you want, and do any additional cleanup/refinement there before posting your edit.

Note, however, that Source mode handles spacing differently from WYSIWYG mode. Double-spaced paragraphs (i.e. one blank line between paragraphs) in Source mode becomes single spacing (actually, space-and-a-half spacing, which is what you want) in WYSIWYG mode; triple- or quadruple-spacing (i.e. 2 or 3 blank lines between paragraphs) in Source mode becomes double spacing in WYSIWYG; 4 or 5 blank lines in Source becomes triple spacing in WYSIWYG, etc. If you paste single-spaced paragraphs (i.e. only a line break, with no blank lines) into Source mode, the line breaks will be lost when you post, and you'll get a Wall of Text. Gideoncrawle I have a song to sing, O!  Sing me your song, O!  A wandering minstrel, I-- 05:30, June 15, 2011 (UTC)

Cool. The formatting is much better, now. Hopefully I can get to this soon, now that it's less intimidating. XD Sprinklemist hasn't changed his signature in a long time. 17:09, June 20, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you so much for the formatting tips Gideon! I take a little longer now because I need to run through and re-add italics, but the end result is so much better! Speaking of which, Chapter Two is finally up. This is actually my finals week, so I blame the late update on loss of power and studying.

I know the newest chapter is kind of rough, but in true Total Drama style the first challenge is always the least complicated (and often most boring). It gets better from here. I'd love some feedback though and maybe hear some opinions on if anybody would be up for a final three or winner guessing contest? I'm not sure what the prize would be yet, but I'm willing to offer one. :) Freefalling Lilacs is way too boring for a cool signature. 23:33, June 20, 2011 (UTC)

I finally got to chapter one, and it was worth reading. Nice work on it. My favorites were Josh and Paul (not because I did his alternate clothes :P). I also really enjoyed Tina Blanks, she was ferocious. XD I can't wait until I have time to read the second chapter. Sprinklemist hasn't changed his signature in a long time. 01:40, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

I loved the second chapter. I completely knew it'd be Josh leaving first. C'mon how are you on a reality show and you are extreme cameraphobic. I don't get it. Oh and I just completely made that word up.

Oh, I loved all the interviews especially Paul and Opal. That was too funny. I loved how she kept insisting that they were related and he kept looking at himself, saying now we aren't. Also any interview with Tina Blanks was hilarious. She was like a drag queen version of Tyra... actually she acted just like Tyra would.

Now I can't wait for the following chapter, I'm justing dying to see the relationships grow and alliances... something that I'm sure Sebastian will have covered for me. I love him, he's so devious.

Can't wait and I'm like super excited. GossipQueen 03:33, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

I've finally had a chance to read Chapter 2. Nicely done. Although it was a long chapter (~8300 words) it didn't seem all that long when I was reading it. Lest there be any misunderstanding, that's a good thing, because it means the chapter was engaging.

Yes, the challenge was straighforward, and I might have gotten more out of it if I was familiar with the talk show hosts you parodied, but I wouldn't call it boring. Visually static, yes, but the reason so little happened was that you were focused on character development. (The Awake-a-Thon is the best canon analog.) What's more, everyone (to the best of my recollection) behaved according to their stated archetypes, which is something that some writers aren't terribly conscientious about. Josh's departure was no surprise, of course; not only did he have the most abject failure in the challenge, but his crippling camera-shyness was clearly going to be a continuing handicap for his team if he stayed.

I do have one piece of advice, though: If we're going to be seeing much more of Rachel Claire, she should have a character page. And P.S., I'm glad I could help with the formatting. It seems to be working for you. Gideoncrawle I have a song to sing, O!  Sing me your song, O!  A wandering minstrel, I-- 06:10, June 26, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks to everybody for the comments! And to Gideon, I am absolutely grateful for the Awake-a-thon comparison. It definitely made me feel a lot better about the status of that chapter. And Rachel Claire will be getting a character page right after I draw up an image for her.

But anyways, Episode Two is up. Now that we've seen what the characters are like on their own, how's about we see how well they interact with each other? As always, any feedback is appreciated!

I know I said I'll be updating on Wednesdays and it's already Friday in my time zone... but for the record, I had it done on Wednesday, I just fell asleep before I could actually format it and put it on the site and I wasn't online at all on Thursday. So I think I'll be changing my updating days to every other Thursday (though there may end up being an update next week too if I write fast). Freefalling Lilacs is way too boring for a cool signature. 06:51, July 1, 2011 (UTC)

I can now offically say this is one of my favorite competition stories on the wiki. I love everything about it, the theme, the characters (especially Issac, Sebastain, and Zach), the artwork, the challenges, everything. Overall, while I'm too lazy to go into full fledged reviews right now, I'd give Chapter One a 9.5/10 (least favorite so far, but still a brilliant way to introduce the contestants), Chapter Two a 10/10 too (my favorite chapter so far despite the elimination, for, although I love Issac, I feel like it would have made sense to send him home instead, since he barely even tried), and Chapter Three a, you guessed it, 10/10 (I loved the whole sharing the room plot, good way to get in interactions, and the challenge seems promising). Just now that if you ever decide to put this up for FS, you have a definite supporter out of me. ~ Prob lem? ;D 13:02, July 1, 2011 (UTC)

Another engaging chapter "For My Entertainment". The shared bathroom arrangement (called a "Jack and Jill" bathroom) used to be a good deal more common than it is now, suggesting that the "hotel" is probably an older one. As MrD noted, this arrangements facilitates character interaction (especially Mars/Venus conflict) as well as simplifying the plumbing.

The challenge sounds interesting, although I do have a couple of minor quibbles. First, Minerva acted a good deal dumber than her bio would seem to suggest. Somehow, I don't think even the canon Lindsay would hold a bow backwards. Likewise, although Minerva's bio suggests that she's starstruck with Chris, she has contact with him every day now, and she's also supposed to by "flamboyantly homosexual", so I'm not sure why she would find the prospect of a date with Chris especially appealing. All in all, it seems to me that Minerva's airheaded question would have been better suited to Camille, or perhaps Ophelia. Speaking of Camille, does anyone curtsy anymore? Well, I suppose someone does, and Camille certainly seems the likeliest candidate in this lot. I found it amusing, though, because I doubt it's very common in TD fanfics, yet I also have a scene in LTDI where Izzy curtsies for the camera.

The other seemingly OOC moment is that I really can't see Chris being stupid enough to stand next to the archery targets. Not only is this a gross violation of range safety rules, but a dyed-in-the-wool narcissist like Chris would surely have a better instinct for self-preservation than that. Besides, it would be harder to see the targets from that position. On the other hand, I could certainly see Chris having Hatchet or an intern stand downrange for some reason and possibly getting shot. Gideoncrawle I have a song to sing, O!  Sing me your song, O!  A wandering minstrel, I-- 07:04, July 2, 2011 (UTC)

Ah! You updated and I didn't even notice. Can I say this chapter had me dying. It's seriously one of your best. The pairing in the rooms are epic, You put Elena to share a bathroom with Zack. I am like dying to see what else comes out of that.

Also I am dying to see more of Sebastain's evil side. I just have the hots for evil guys. Especially when they are connving and I love Donna for seeing past him. Now the challenge is turning up to be amazing.

I loved the little Paul/Irina moment! It was so cute. I really loved it. Now I can wait for the next one!

GossipQueen 17:58, July 2, 2011 (UTC)

And so the second challenge has begun. It's surprising how much you posted while I was away, it's about three times as much as I write in the same time period... at best. The characters are just like TD characters, and you do focus on their stereotypes (except the whole Minerva date thing that Gideon pointed out.) Overall, the story is still very, very amusing and on it's way to deserved popularity.-Summer is ready  when you are.  19:51, July 2, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for commenting everyone. I'll be answering/thanking/etc. in the order the comments were posted:

Mrdaimion: Thanks so much for the ratings! I'm surprised they're so high (especially for the rather dull first chapter) but I'm definitely not complaining! It's definitely not going up for FS yet... maybe in the future though? Who knows? (Also, your trollface icon is amazing... I clicked to look at your userpage and I cracked up!)

Gideon: I've actually stayed in a hotel with a shared bathroom. Fortunately I knew the person staying in the room next door and it was only for a night, but it was shocking enough that I had to include it somewhere... that and for the reasons you'd listed. As for the Minerva situation, I actually didn't realize that I'd written that she was the one who wanted the date with Chris. I'd just tried to include that she wasn't listening to a word he was saying because she was talking to somebody else, and that was just the question she'd ended up asking. I changed it since you (and others) pointed it out though. As for the holding the bow backwards, as well as many of her other less than intelligent actions, there's actually a reason for that. It's not stupidity, though right now it does seem like that, and it'll all be explained later.

As for Chris standing near the targets, Chef's not going anywhere near this challenge due to him finding it stupid (as he briefly mentioned) and I'd rather use a main character than an intern for the job so there aren't too many characters in the scene. It is a bit OOC, but I figured it'd work just for the joke of him getting hit with the arrow.

GossipQueen: I love that you have the hots for Sebastian (even though I already knew that, I always smirk evilly at that). And of course somebody had to see past him. Even Alejandro had somebody see past him. And I still can't say much about Paul and Irina... :)

TDIRM (I'm not sure how else to abbreviate your name, correct me if I'm wrong): Ha. If you want to talk about slow writing, you should see how rarely I used to update on Fanfiction.net. There's still an angry mob after me over there. But thanks so much for the positive comment!

To everyone: With the next chapter, I'm probably going to post a section for a Final Three guessing contest. I'm not sure what the prize will be, but there will be one! So if you have a guess, you can put it up now and kind of reserve it in a comment. Freefalling Lilacs is way too boring for a cool signature. 04:05, July 3, 2011 (UTC)

My troll-face avatar is amazing, isn't it? ;P And I vote for Zach, Issac, and Sebastain in advance. I figure I'm not winning no matter what, so why not vote for my three faves? =P ~ Prob lem? ;D 10:57, July 3, 2011 (UTC)

Chapter Four Discussion
Chapter Four is up. It was getting way too long and I actually had to cut out a few scenes, so if you see something in there that just doesn't make sense feel free to mention it. I might have cut out a scene that relates to it and accidentally left it in there. Any small grammar/spelling errors will be edited later because I really don't have any time now. Also, the Final Three Guessing Contest has been posted at the top of the page like I promised! Freefalling Lilacs: Can you hear me now?  16:25, July 15, 2011 (UTC)

I read the first episode (finally) and LOVED it! I mostly like Allison at the moment, what with he sass and all. I felt so bad for Josh! I'd probably be frozen in fear in front of all those cameras too, and I'm not even a farmer. x.x Can't wait to read episode two! Keep up the good work. -- Spotted at the hottest shows, interview on Charlie Rose,  they all want a piece of you!  21:23, July 15, 2011 (UTC)

Like always I abosutely adored this chapter and can I say that Sebastian, Elena and Victor scene was one of the best scenes I've seen your write. It was so funny. I loved it. Also I really love Irina, she offically has won me over. Oh and Camille, I am going to keep an eye on that, but something tells me that Cara will be discovering what ever is up with her.

Now for my TOP THREE PREDICTIONS! It will have to be Sebastian, Donna, and Paul!

I always forget to put the signature. Sorry GossipQueen 21:28, July 16, 2011 (UTC)

The way the Emmys won the challenge reminded me of the sports movie challenge in the canon TDA, where the Grips won the tiebreaker by shamelessly sucking up to Chris. (This is neither good nor bad in itself, it just seemed worth notice.) Of course, people from both teams tried it this time, some more successfully than others. I'm not sure Eric deserved to go home, although he could be viewed as having cost his team the challenge. Frankly, I would have expected Isaac to go, insofar as I expected anyone in particular; but in his case, this may be little more than a "stay of execution". Unless Isaac shows some hidden depths, he seems likely to run out of story fairly quickly; and if your planning process is anything like mine, a lot of the early outs are likely to be victims of the elimination order following the storylines.

Something I have mentioned to others is that, in real-world "reality" shows, contestants are strongly discouraged from mentioning players or events from previous seasons. On Survivor, for example, the contestants are told flat out that any reference to previous seasons will never appear in the finished episodes, with the implication being, "don't talk about such things if you want a lot of screen time." (They might make an exception for things like All-Star seasons, where all the players have been on the show before.)

Given their backgrounds and bios, Gabe and Elena do seem like natural allies. Furthermore, this would seem to be an alliance of equals, at least in theory, which might be the best chance for either or both of these two to show hidden depths (if they have any) as the story progresses. Gideoncrawle I have a song to sing, O!  Sing me your song, O!  A wandering minstrel, I-- 05:30, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

Very good, I am loving this story! You're pretty good. The characters are all different, you know when to show and when to tell, and you're a great artist. Anyway, i really love this and you have another reader hooked! Goldenshane 17:03, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you to everyone who commented on the last chapter that I didn't get to reply to. As for now, Episode Three is up, and it's a fun challenge. For the record, all of the songs and bands mentioned are totally fictional (which means that I did in fact write those hideous lyrics that Avery read off of her paper). To anybody who has made a final three guess or plans on making one: could you guys just write your guess and your name underneath the "Final Three Guessing" heading at the top of this talk page? It makes it a lot easier for me to see who guessed what without digging through these comments. Thanks in advance for any comments on the chapter. Freefalling Lilacs: Can you hear me now?  15:50, July 29, 2011 (UTC)

I loved this chapter! I think that Elena is my favorite character, as she's so interesting! Avery is too. Minerva is still an awesome character, I'm very glad that you're writing for her the way you're writing for her. As for the challenge, I'm liking it a lot! I do have one criticism: show, don't tell. Don't tell us that Irina (forgive my spelling if a butcher it) had a great idea. Instead, say something along the lines of, "As Irina listened to her teammates, her glossy lips slowly formed into a smile. Her pale-blue eyes widened as she said softly, "Everyone, I just had the most wonderful of ideas!" I didn't tell you she had an idea, I showed it. I also used some adjectives to show that she is a model and she cares a lot about her appearance. Yeah... if only I could do this with my own works. XD. Anyway, I'm loving it so far! Goldenshane 01:02, July 30, 2011 (UTC)