Is there a "stupidly hard quiz" this year...?

[SoupDragon]

For the last few years, @ApocalypseNowt has posted the quiz from her workplace. Surely it's time for this year's joint MN effort...?

Great! What does @ApocalypseNowt need to type in?

Sometimes in the past years initial letters have spelt a word/phrase... something among those lines. Or maybe it's to do with the groupings.

If it was really smart it’d be shading in the boxes with each colour as a PP did spells out a word or something! Sadly don’t have any writing tools with me

It doesn't 😂

I also tried converting it to binary based on whether they are alive or dead. I might be overthinking this. 😂

Haha overinfested? Us?

i'm sure you can get something for that overinfestation...

There's always one of these where we solved the whole puzzle but then have no clue where to go next. I've done a lot of staring to no avail.

Wonder if it's the 'whose work' wording that matters. I am absolutely stretching here but the names maybe?

E.g.
William/Whitney/Washington/will/wonder
Houston/Hemingway/Harrison/Hepburn
Orwell
Smith/Stevie/shakespeare/spears
Ezra/earnest/Elvis/Eastwood

Spelling:
S/h/d
W/e/f/a
G
W/b
G/h/p/c

I'd assumed first names switched for surnames for the first word then vice versa for the second given Orwell and Kevin but no O first names.

"Whose Work" implies we're looking for a name as the answer maybe? So what we need is a question... (and I have many, many questions)

Not a question as such, a song/writing/film

Hello! I've caught up. I've contributed (minimally) in previous years and really enjoyed it!

What if the names are read in rows not columns?

Apparently Elvis Presley had a song called words. Since he's on there, maybe it's Elvis Presley?

Britney Spears did a song called Work

Sorry, Work Bitch

Have been lurking but without much to add so far! Could “Whose Work” also be “Who’s Work”? JK Rowling is the only one here where you can make the word “work” from the letters of their name.

Could it be that the initials reading across each line make another puzzle to solve in the same way as the other boxes? Eg top row is WHCSC and that’s a work by someone (same for other lines)

Could be first names instead I guess

That's a good thought - there are 5 columns and 5 "works" given for each of the original people

I tried jkrowling and it's not that. Now staring at initials as suggested by SoupDragon but no joy yet!

Sorry, it was WitcheryDevine who suggested that!

I'm also looking at using 1 initial from column 1, 2 from 2, and so on:

D
WC
LCC
WJBR
TAGJJJ (if using first initials...might be surnames?)

Nothing jumping out as yet!

Try letter 1 from the surnames of column 1, letter 2 from column 2 etc

I think that spells out WORKS for the first row.

I've got it, it's Stephen King!

Using this list, and my method, we get

WORKS
ILCLU
DESAL
EMSLO
TANDC
ARRIE

so it looks like Christopher Plummer may be incorrect as the phrase should read

WORKS INCLUDE SALEMS LOT AND CARRIE