Personal interview

So the interviewer wanted to know some personal information. After deleting the more obvious questions, this is what’s left.

1. What are the three things you can never be without while traveling?
Mini computer, phone and Tetris
2. If you weren’t a writer, what would you do?
Politician or general beach do nothing person (same difference)
3. What’s your perfect day off?
Beach, coffee, watch football, relax with family and play Nintendo
4. What famous person most inspires you and why?
Jodie Foster; constantly strives to stay at the top of her profession and achieves it with every movie.
5. If you had a dinner party, who are the four people you would invite (can be living or dead)?
It would have to be a table for six with my wife and daughter plus John Lennon, George Best, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jodie Foster. If my wife is busy; then Halle Berry LOL!
6. If there were one adjective to describe you, what would it be?
Busy
7. What’s on your workout / MP3 playlist?
Suzi Quatro, Renaissance, Sailor and of course, The Beatles
8. List your top three favorites:
TV Shows:
1 Dr Who
2 Match of the Day
3 Dragon’s Den
Movies:
1 Silence Of the Lambs
2 101 Dalmatians
3 Mamma Mia
Place to Shop:
1 Amazon
2 Walmart
3 any computer shop
Restaurants:
1 Just Grillin’
2 Sweet Tomatoes
3 Chefette
Professional Athletes (past or present):
1 George Best
2 Eric Cantona
3 Kelly Holmes
4 Sir Bobby Charlton
Cities (in any country):
1 London
2 NewYork
3 Malaga
4 Nottingham
Books (non-fiction):
1 Save The Cat – Blake Synder
2 Unzipped – Suzi Quatro
3 From Reel to Deel – Dov S S Simens
4 The Beatles Encyclopedia – Bill Harry
5 Managing My Life: The Autobiography – Alex Ferguson
Books (fiction):
1 Blindsighted – Karin Slaughter
2 Hide – Lisa Gardner
3 Hotel Babylon – Imogen Edwards-Jones
4 The Eleventh Commandment – Jeffrey Archer
5 A Caribbean Mystery – Agatha Christie
Screenplays/scripts:
1 Closer – Patrick Marber
2 Fawlty Towers – John Cleese and Connie Booth
3 An Education – Nick Hornby
4 In The Loop – Armando Iannucci, Harold Manning, Ian Martin, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell
5 Mousetrap – Agatha Christie

It’s not that I always want to break the rules (sometimes it’s good to) but often, three wasn’t enough. I’ll need to update this regularly, of course.

Procrastination – I could write about it forever.

It’s just so easy isn’t it – why do today what we can put off until tomorrow. It’s not that we mind doing it – whatever ‘it’ is; it might even be something we look forward to doing. Better put it off and do nothing just now, otherwise we might not have anything to do tomorrow.

Now look at that, I’ve used the term ‘we’ rather than’ I’. It’s easier to share the blame, do nothing now attitude if we’re sharing it with others. After all, it couldn’t be me that’s holding ‘me’ back from completing that task.

We’ve all heard the term “to procrastinate” but what does it really mean? Wiktionary says it’s ‘The act of postponing, delaying or putting off, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.’ That wasn’t too difficult was it? The art of putting something off; that’s doesn’t sound too bad. You can delay and postpone, that sounds even easier. You always meant to come back to it and finish that task one day, you just don’t need to tell yourself which day you’ll do it.

Hold on a moment there Wiktionary, that last part ‘habitual carelessness and laziness’ hit hard, didn’t it? Who could it be talking about? I’m a busy person; I carry out lots of tasks. I’m certainly not careless or lazy, so I’m safe in the understanding that it couldn’t indicate me. I put off those tasks for very good reason and I don’t need to say why.

The good thing about procrastination is that you can keep on requesting its appearance. It can go on and on and you might never do what you intended. That, also, is the rub. You might never finish something you really would love to complete.

I’m my own prime example. I had a great idea for a screenplay. I ran it around my head for days. I almost had the whole script written. Then I met someone special. I told her about my screenplay. She expressed delight with the idea. I had to start writing it real soon.

After we married we quickly moved to stage two, with a lovely daughter arriving (how did that happen?) We also moved home a few times, but I kept telling everyone that my screenplay was nearly ready.

I learnt more about screenwriting. This forced me to change my script and adopt some industry standards I hadn’t known about. I finally purchased some industry standard software to write my screenplay. Again, anything rather than just actually writing the script itself.

Ten years have passed and the screenplay is 90% written. That’s the first draft 90% written, amusingly on software called ‘Final Draft’. I know that when the first draft is complete, the process of re-writing will begin and could take several weeks, but not months.

I have a set plan and work on the screenplay for a certain number of hours per day. I know when it will be finished – oh so close now.

My procrastination has proved very useful. The screenplay coming out at this end of my delay period, is much better than the one that would have formed, ten years ago and my home life is much more rich with love and ideas, than before.

I no longer procrastinate. I haven’t the time. I need to do it today. I have so many other ideas I want to get down on paper.