I’ve got a question for you frank. Maybe you’ve said before and I’ve missed. If so, please say again.
You’ve always done a good job writing up the award winners. Considering the number of winners you really don’t have a lot of time to do the writing. Do you have some notes or outlines prepared before you get the vote results or do you just essentially do everything from scratch when you get the votes?
It's depended, but
generally the awards have been right from scratch, first drafts only, in ascending order of the winners. A few have been written from outlines or notes.
For example, right now I have an outline for the brain-damaged primitive, but because he's likely to win two awards (a Top DUmmie and the Steve), it'll have to be discarded, because I don't want to duplicate material for two awards. Each award should be different.
Mr. Wiggum used to, at my request, feed me the winners one at a time--after all, I like surprises too--and once in a while, he'd throw me a primitive pretty much unknown to me. Because of the pressures of time, that particular primitive didn't get the full franksolich treatment, but excresence happens.
Two years ago, at my new request, he fed them all to me in one message, which made it easier, as I was aware of what was on the road ahead for me. Then last year, since I counted the votes, same thing.
Thus I was deprived of any surprises, but it made them easier to write.
The earlier awards I wrote, I used to just log on and write in the "post reply" window. The past two years, I've written them on Microsoft Word first, and then transferred them.....and thus have made fewer errors or contestable statements.
The easiest one I ever wrote--and this in a "post reply" window, first draft only, was the award for the #02 Top DUmmie of 2010, the sparkling old dude. That was easier than strawberries-and-cream to write--it flowed--and I'm sure his business partners subsequently printed off thousands of copies of it, to include in the promotional materials for their consulting business, to show prospective customers how well-connected they are.
I can't say which one was the hardest, but it was probably for a primitive unknown to me.
But generally, from scratch after I'm aware of the particular winner, but on Microsoft Word first, meaning the more-recent awards are second drafts, not first drafts, because when transferring, I edit and polish before hitting the "post" key.
The quickest--but not the easiest--one I wrote off was for the miserable wretched old bitch Anne, the Top DUmmie of 2010. It turned out okay, but man, I was
pressed for time.
