The Five Randoms: Post-Deadline Edition

What I'm listening to as I start this post: Kathy Griffin doing stand-up on Bravo.

1) I can stay up for 48 hours and, when I finally do go to bed, I only sleep for three hours. The fantastic news? I finished the first draft of "the lottery" story. The not so fantastic news? I ate way too many Riesens due to stress-induced chewing (I exchanged the high-caloric Riesens for sugarfree gum; however, I was known to down three packs a night on particularly sleep-deprived nights).

2) I've been going to bed at 5 a.m. for so long, I drum my fingers and try not to look at the red numbers on the alarm clock if I go to bed any earlier than 3:30 a.m.

3) My critique partners are to me as Tim Gunn is to his designers, Tom Colicchio is to his chefs, and Tyra Banks is to her cigarette-smoking, food-eschewing fame-seekers. Thank you, SSSSers, for calling me on puckered seems, burnt broccolini, and not being fierce enough (or, in the world of writing, the wrong tense, inconsistent characterization, and forced scenes).

4) To celebrate my First Draft Deadline Being Met, I got The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters. No, I'm not a screenwriter, but I do get screenwriting books to read screenwriter advice. All stories are pretty much a three-act structure, which plays/movies have down to a science. Probably because a movie is usually around 100 pages, which is nothing in the world of book-writing. When you're writing a book that's 300 to 900 pages (hello, Harry Potter) long, sometimes you forget this structure. Screenwriting books help refresh your memory, especially when you've been up for 48 hours and have forgotten to pee for the last 18 hours.

5) If you write two pages a day, five days a week, you'll have 100 pages in 10 weeks. You can be disciplined enough to just do two pages a day, and I think anyone can find one hour to do two pages, even if you have to do them on a cocktail napkin. Some of the sage advice found in The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters.

What I'm listening to as I finish this post: Kathy Griffin still doing stand-up on Bravo.