my calendar seems to be running fast...

It's late APRIL?

When the hell did this happen?

Criminy. It seems maybe two months ago that I was in Austin, giggling like a madman, and then next I was in LA, still giggling, then there's a vague memory of Christmas, some fuzzy recollection of a major strike, little league season started, and now it's suddenly 10 days til Nicholl deadline (more on that in a sec) and only six months til AFF '08.

And I feel like nothing substantial has happened on the writing front since... July?

This can't be good. And in point of fact I know for certain it's not even accurate -- I have been working on a variety of writing projects, and I was feeling happy about some progress as recently as just last week. But the sensation is real and accurate: these last 8 months or so have blown by at hurricane speed, and I'm suddenly starting to feel that not entirely useless itch of desperation -- the need to do something... accomplish something... claim something...

Like Auda Abu-Thai, "I must find something honorable..."

Tick tock, my pretties. Tick tock.

-=-=-

MEANWHILE... I am stunned to look up and realize that again the Nicholl deadline looms large and again I have no friggin clue how I might get the new thing done in time to be useful as an entry. There are those who claim to write scripts in 2 or 3 weeks, but (and I say this with all the respect I can feign halfheartedly) "I cannot fathom this." I accept that it is possible to put down enough words to fill pages such that the result looks (at a slight distance) like a script, but I cannot for the life of me accept that many people routinely sit down and crank out anything read-worthy in 14 or 21 days.

[And, please -- spare me any personal testimony of the time you claim you did this, as I really don't care and probably don;t believe you anyway.]

Part of me figures I'll just repeat my stunt from last year and defy the Nicholl folks to repeat THEIR errors and again bump me down the trail of advancement. If they dink me first round, I'll giggle and say 'TOLD ya so...!" " and feel vindicated in my amateurosity. If the cookie crumbles the other way, I'll (again) happily take whatever goodies they foolishly send me way.

Suckers.
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