Comments on: Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn

By: JanL

JanL — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:19:52 +0000

I think missing deadlines is in the DNA of anyone who gets paid for writing. It doesn’t even matter what we write about, we have to miss the deadline.

The one deadline I didn’t had to make false and embarassing excuses for missing it was that of my masters thesis. I even had it finished and printed three days before the deadline. After printing I immediately found two spelling mistakes, and since that day (and all other days before, I have to admit) I like to miss the deadline or come as close to it as possible. Apparently I don’t write better if I deliver on time, so I don’t.

Since I test and write about guitars, it is only natural that I rather like to play them than write about them. And I discovered that I can write quicker (but not necessarily better) about guitars that I don’t like than writing about guitars that I really like. When I like something it is more painful to find the right words that do the magnificent instrument justice. If I hate something I have the usual phrases to criticise it without sounding like a taliban confronted with european liberalism. Sometimes it’s work, sometimes pure pleasure.

Good luck with your writing!

By: ArsenicY

ArsenicY — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:40:46 +0000

I also walk around saying “Damn, damn, damn, damn,” with the inflections Rex Harrison use when stressed. It doesn’t actually relieve any stress, but it feels nice. And dirtywhitecandy, I’m also procrastinating while reading Mr. Fry’s procrastination, which does make this a chain of procrastination. Rather like Barney Stinson’s chain of screaming. They’re both stress filled.

By: dirtywhitecandy

dirtywhitecandy — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:58:53 +0000

Thoroughly enjoyed reading your procrastinative blog while procrastinating a piece of writing of my own. Have you started a chain procrastination?

By: BoffleSpoffle

BoffleSpoffle — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:03:39 +0000

“Me and My Girl”! Oh that was wonderful. Saw it in the West End, though not with Emma. “The Sun Has Got His Hat On” and all the music was such gentle good fun. What a well-done revival. Glad it got you off to a good start. All that reading of the great Wodehouse came in handy both for that project and then la creme de la creme, Jeeves and Wooster. I guess it is fun to be writing all the things you write. And just as with any art, you do it because you can’t not do it. Looking forward to your current and future projects. As ever. B.

By: christy

christy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:58:57 +0000

*******Hi Stephen*******
Poor you!
I wrote a full length feature film screenplay about 10 years ago, which I sent you, and you were ‘most interested’ in it, but fairly soon afterwards you were immersed in ‘Bright Young Things’ and as a result you returned it but never ‘got back to me’.
If you are at all interested please do not hesitate to contact me.
I will happily post it to you again for you to peruse.
Bestest wishings
Christy x

By: markwhiteman

markwhiteman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:34:33 +0000

What happened to the adaptation of Toole’s Confederacy of Dunces?

By: Barry Freund

Barry Freund — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:15:44 +0000

Hurrah for procrastinative blogging!

By: AJAX4444

AJAX4444 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:35:13 +0000

Using the word “and” consecutively 5 times in a sentence:

A signwriter was designing the new signboard outside a pub called “THE COCK AND BULL”, and was having some difficulty getting he letter-spacing correct between each of the words. He settled for a three inch gap between “COCK” and “AND” and “AND” and “BULL” ! The word “and” appears 5 times in a row !

By: CrypticSam

CrypticSam — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:42:17 +0000

I do like that you have time to rant about being pushed for time.

By: Quietcontrary

Quietcontrary — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:59:01 +0000

That “final exam” feeling reminded me of myself in my own younger days. Just after I graduated from university, I remember deciding to hang on to an ATM slip because it showed a bank balance of 50p. Hah, I thought, I’m a graduate now: I’ll never be poor again, but this tiny piece of paper will remind me what it was like to be a penniless student. Fourteen years on, as the owner of a rapidly depreciating one-bedroom apartment, I long for the days when I had 50p to my name and wasn’t in hock to the bank…