Every girl needs a tux

This morning I did something rather strange. Well, strange for someone in possession of two X chromosomes. I bought myself a dinner suit.

I'm going to a science fiction convention this weekend (yes yes, I know, NERD!), and there's a spy-themed disco on the Saturday night. I thought it would be fun to hire a tuxedo and go as James Bond. So I called in at my local Moss Bros today, only to find out that a hire for this weekend would require pickup on Friday afternoon. Not possible given that I'm heading up to the con on Friday morning. When I asked about alternatives, the guy behind the counter offered to sell me a dinner suit for £150 and throw in the shirt and tie for free. I would've spent £50 on the hire, and I had my heart set on being Bond, so I gave in to impulse and made the purchase.

Who knows, the suit may come in handy in the future. One day I might be successful as a writer and get invited to lots of black-tie events, and anyone who knows me in person knows I don't wear dresses. Well, I did once, as a bridesmaid at a friend's wedding, but I've also been a bridesmaid in trousers for two other friends. That's how much I don't wear dresses.

Failing the success and black-tie events thing, at least I'll be set the next time anyone has a Bond-themed fancy dress party.

Completed things are nice

This past week was very lazy and unproductive on the whole. I think Dead Mouse Day (see previous post) was in fact one of the better ones. But -- and this is a big but -- I did hit a milestone in that the radio sitcom I've written with Piers Beckley is finished. We did our final pass on Thursday and locked the script down. Hooray!

Next week we'll start approaching radio producers. This is, of course, likely to result in a lot of rejection and disappointment, but I think we've written a funny script and I'm proud of it. So for the moment, let's stick with the "Hooray!" sentiment.

Also on the subject of "Hooray!", the premiere party for my short film "No Circulars Please" kicks off in five minutes. I'm plying the guests with beer and champagne, so if they don't like the film they'll (cross fingers) be too drunk to complain about it.

I blame the dead mouse

After getting a lot done last week (on projects other than the troubleseome feature script in my previous post), I've been having serious procrastination issues this week. I have no excuse for making sod-all progress yesterday, but this morning when I sat down to write I noticed a smell in the room. At first I thought the cat box was sending an ambient pong wafting through the flat, but a bit of investigation determined the smell was coming from behind my laundry hamper. A bit of moving stuff around, and two things happened. 1) The smell got about three times worse. 2) The culprit was revealed to be a mouse carcass. Several days dead from the look of it.

I got rid of the corpse and put a room deodoriser near the spot, but my work space still stinks to high heaven and I'm getting a headache. I'm debating whether to take my laptop to a coffee place, or just take myself to a coffee place. Either way, I'm vacating the flat for a few hours.

I suppose I should be grateful to my cats for apparently killing vermin, but I do wish they'd've done something more helpful with the body. Like eating it, or burying it outside, or really just anything not involving my bedroom.

Stuck? Stuck stuck stuck!

Remember the bit in the film "A Christmas Story" when the kid licks the school flagpole and his tongue freezes to the metal? No? Okay, then you'll have to trust me when I say this post's title is a bit of dialogue from that wonderful scene.

I'm still working on my feature film script doctoring -- oops, collaboration -- gig, and we're in the middle of delivering a new draft. Most of the work on said new draft was meant to fall to me, but late last week I locked up. I knew what we needed to achieve, we'd agreed on a way to achieve it, but I couldn't make any progress. The longer this went on, the more stressed out I got about it and the worse my locked-up state got. On Monday I passed the script to my collaborator and asked him to work on it for a few days. My hope is that the passage of time and whatever changes he makes will get me unlocked and making progress again.

Anyone got any tips on overcoming writer's block? I could use some ideas for times when "make someone else do it" isn't an option.