Deadlines Aren't To Be Trifled With

⚡10:13 pm 1/28/26 - two hours until the Deadline 🕛

NOTICE WHEN WRITING FOR A VOCAL CHALLENGE↯

Do not start late

Or your poem won't be great

An idea popping into your head two hours before midnight on the Day Of is probably doomed to fail

(_doomed or entombed or something that rhymes with mushroom_)

Editing takes time

Especially goodly rhymes!

And buttering a barely baked notion at the last minute without any structured guidance can be a travail

It's better to bail.

You can't possibly achieve your best work as a writer if you don't start your poetry well before the deadline time!

Therefore: this will not be a completely coherent announcement

I have no clue where I'm going with this

<wait-- I need to piss>

⚡___↯

WARNING

Starting late is a gamble

You might even ramble

"So don't delay!"

As they always say

⚡___↯

10:15 pm 1/28/26 - an hour and forty-five minutes until the Deadline 🕒

Gotta pause....

Is this a lost cause?

~~Did anyone get the license plate number of that penguin?🐧~~

⚡___↯

10:45 pm 1/28/26 - an hour and fifteen minutes before the Deadline 🕘

WARNING

When facing down a deadline you must account for unexpected interruptions like your partner coming home to tell you he/she needs you to locate the Tupperware bowl thingie you used because there should be two in the kitchen but he/she can only find one and they are his/her mama's and she wants them back and you know you used it yesterday to make your own homemade version of a KFC potato bowl with mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn but you can't find it and you keep looking and you can't find it because there is a lot of clutter in your life because you are an artist and you don't have time for menial shit like cleaning and you keep saying "It's gotta be here somewhere" because you never go anywhere but you really don't remember what you did with it because yesterday was your birthday when you were totally focused on other things so you keep looking and looking and looking, going to the kitchen repeatedly and your bedroom and looking in the refrigerator and under your bed and under your chair and looking in closets and asking your cats if they know where it is and they just look at you like you're stupid so you really really look in your den where you write because that's where you think it's most likely to be but it's just nowhere nowhere nowhere to be found but it's gotta be somewhere and finally you start systematically going through your den when finally you find it beneath the robe you took off yesterday because it was covered with cat hairs that were getting on your face, feeling like cobwebs mixed with cotton candy and were driving you absolutely CRAZY! <≧check this for editing spellingmisstakes if'n there are time before the dead line⇚ ☢>

EVERY WRITER NEEDS TO BE FULLY PREPARED FOR SITUATIONS EXACTLY LIKE THIS👆WHEN WRITING LAST MINUTE FOR AN RAPIDLY APPROACHING DEADLINE

⚡___↯

BUT BE REASSURED

If you are feeling stressed

or under duress

There is one thing you can do

Generating original A.I. pictures for your stories is quick and easy and it's your story's glue!!!

Here.

Let me show you.

11:11 pm 1/28/26 - roughly fifty minutes before the Deadline⏳

WTF, A.I.!!! I thought the 'I' was for Intelligence, not Ignoramus!

😠

This is exhausting.

I need a break

for my visual center's sake

😱

Penguins only conspire like this in the southern hemisphere!

Is that why I feel a sinking sensation iced with fear?

😱

⚡⚡😱😱😱😱⚡⚡

⚡___↯

11:44 pm 1/28/26 - roughly fifteen minutes before the Deadline⏳

WARNING

Generating original A.I. pictures for your stories is labor-intensive, often terrifying, and therefore really really really HARD

Don't play that as your last card

Or your cover photo will end up being giraffes watching a whore

And they'll be no time left to generate more!

Wait...

This may be a fight!

But I know I can get this right!!!

Why is this always such a chore?

....just a couple more....

⚡___↯

~~I'm TRYING!!!!

Well that went well

Can you tell?

<very heavy sigh>

I'd rather do the giraffes than one of the pictures with penguins so I suppose that's the cover pic that's gotta get me by

See blue cry

⚡💙⚡

Ó╭╮Ò

⚡___↯

OMG, this poem ain't it!

But I gotta submit!

SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!!!!!!!!!!

↯

_______________Bolt ⚡

11:59 pm - one minute until midnight

⌛

OH MY ELECTRICAL GOD IN HEAVEN!!!!!

I THOUGHT THE DEADLINE WAS MIDNIGHT!!!!

I'M ONE MINUTE TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let that be a lesson to me.

Well, since I missed that👆, I'll just bump this up to 600 words and publish it in the Humor Community, where I'm still a god.

⚡😁👍

🎼🎵 A B C D E F G

H I J K LMNOP

Q R S

T U V

W X Y and Z!

Now I've writ my ABCs, tell me what you think of me...

since I screwed this whole damn thing up

₿UT⭛⭛⭛⭛

even though I didn't enter the fucking challenge on time as planned (where I would have clearly clinched that $200 with this poetic masterpiece), at least I made you🫵 laugh!

Didn't I?

⚡

You're welcome.

⚡

_______________Bolt ⚡⚡