Time Frame

The truth is, I hate deadlines. But I love the writing. I love writing about people mostly, and what they've done in their life and what they plan to do with the rest of it. That is, for the most part. But man do I hate getting that writing done quickly. See, I go through spurts of creativity (read: being productive). And for every hour I spend submersed into stint of productive/creative activity, there's about two hours I need to recover from that (read: surf the internet/stare blankly at monitor). So timeliness is not my strongest quality.

It doesn't help that when I'm getting into writing up a story and I'm really into a groove, I always manage to get a call from some old person that remembers reading something about something in an article from three years ago — or maybe it was in the past three years, he'll say. Automatic time loss of 30-minutes, and loss of train of thought, which, in turn makes for an even larger chunk taken out of that limited window of personal creativity. Erg. Of course you think, don't answer the phone. Aha! But see, I'm waiting for people to call back, important people, whose comments will tie my story together. People that are a bitch to get a hold of. I have to answer.

The worst are the people that start speed-talking as soon as you pick up and never seem to stop for a breath of air, therefore leaving no significant pause to cut them off. You sit there for about 15 minutes listening to, for example, a woman's spiel on Greyhound losing her luggage — and finally, after several false starts, you get a chance jump in and explain that hers is not a story that your magazine would cover, and refer her to the daily newspaper or local TV stations. (Truth is, you don't even know if they would do the story seeing as you stopped listening in the first five minutes after figuring out your publication wouldn't do it.) You tell her you hope everything works out.