This here article arrives inside issue 40 of LondonMeUp.Com, which if you’ve been paying attention, means it is the 39th week to week issue, in which I have only 1 week to produce the issue (taking out the first issue which was produced with a host of content - 5 Events, 3 Articles, 2 Stories, 1 Review, and 1 My 2 Pints to get things kicked off). This means that exactly 39 times, I have experienced all that goes with the pressure of the publishing deadline.

That pressure is a strange thing. I am here today to talk about it. Even this here, me talking about the pressure, has been in a way brought on by the pressure itself. I sit here (as I do every week), writing this week’s article, last thing on a Friday night (apart from the weeks someone else does it and I have a blissful week off), racking my brains for an idea of something to write about. Every week I fear I’d never again reach the heady heights of Great Scott! I’ve already written the event, the review, and the My 2 Pints, I’ve uploaded, resized and captioned the photos, and I’ve even added the buttons to the main pages. I’ve saved writing the article until last (as I do every week). I’ve written, and re-written, and chopped and changed what the whole thing is about (and subsequently the title – which means changing the button again) three times already. Is this it? The final draft? Probably not, I expect I’ll delete this before I hit ‘save’ (although I kind of want to keep this in now).

The popular American TV show Saturday Night Live I’m sure experiences the exact same situation. They are forced to produce the show with only a similar one week of lead time due to the nature of some of the extremely current, current affair comedy. There recently seems to be a fascination with this type of pressure on both sides of the planet, proven in the inexplicable popularity of 30 Rock, and the popularity and inexplicable cancellation of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. My own opinions on the two programme’s qualities aside, both of are set around the production of a Saturday Night Live type of comedy programme, and offer a sort of ‘behind the scenes’ look at what that pressure might be like.

I don’t blame the average viewer at all. It’s an exciting thing to be a part of. After uploading one week’s issue every Saturday, after writing the updates in the Facebook group and Tweeting the new content. I have around half an hour to sit back in my chair and enjoy the overwhelming release of pressure that comes with it. But after that half hour, the pressure will creep back in. Suddenly, that sense of achievement and completion swirls down the plughole of time into a nightmare. A lot like the 10 minutes of jubilation after finishing an exam, before starting to worry about the results. I slowly begin to realise I’ve wiped out all the work I’ve just done, and need to do it all over again for next week. Then ‘what’s the point’ I’m sure people might think.

LondonMeUp.Com has now had 31 straight issues featuring a new addition to each of the 4 main categories. This kind of record has encouraged me to make sure I offer another piece every week, something which its predecessor LeedsMeUp.Com never really made sure to do. The point is, without that pressurised structure in place, I’ll only write something when I have the time, and when I really want to. Why do you think I write the majority of the stuff on here, because I’m the one who wants it. The very fact that LondonMeUp.Com exists, forces me to write things, and far from feel annoyed and pointlessly pressured into doing it, I feel encouraged into it. After each week there’s such a feeling of accomplishment, it’s hard to stop.

Here’s to 39 weeks of intense, scary, nervous, worrying about what to do, what to write about, when to write it, and just if it’s any good or not. And here’s to 39 more!

The 39 Ep’s - Brought to you by James Wormald -