Writers and deadlines
I’m writing this quickly because I’m on extreme deadline today, with my copy edits due this Friday and another huge project due next Friday and it makes me breathe fast and tap my foot and talk fast and be impatient and I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF THIS.
Some writers hate their deadlines, others thrive on them. It was one of the parts of lawyering that worked for me–always having to file motions by set dates, having to go to hearings whether I was ready or not. Some people feel that having to work around deadlines is like handing your life over to The Man–”When I’m a freelancer, when I’m a big-time author, THEY’RE going to wait for ME.”
Right.
The more I get to look behind the curtain of publishing, the more I see how every element of it runs on some schedule. If I don’t meet my deadlines, someone else has to scramble, someone else is going home at night bitching about these prima donna authors who think the world revolves around them and no one else has to get their work in on time.
If I don’t have half a dozen things to do all at once, I can’t seem to do anything. I’m aimless. I’m even semi-depressed. So when two major to-dos hit at the same time last week, I was in heaven. I’m still all blissed-out, even as I have this constant feeling of needing to pee. (Come on–I know a lot of you have that same reaction.)
I belong to a group of writers who meet four times a year in various parts of the country. We spend a weekend together critiquing each other’s novels and eating far too much candy. You may recall my post about that.
In order for us to have novels to critique, we all have a deadline the month before to submit our novels to each other. So four times a year we have a drop-dead date for having new work in someone else’s hands. It’s one of the best motivators I can think of. If you’re a writer and you’re not already doing something like this, maybe it’s time. Put out the word to all your writer friends, set up a schedule, be willing to travel.
Whether you’re a writer or not, what’s your style when it comes to deadlines? Do you resent them and therefore passively-aggressively fail to meet them? Or are you someone whose life works best when there’s an assignment circled on your calendar? “Get boyfriend.” “Start my own company.” “Finish novel #23.”
Who out there is working on deadline today, and who happens to love that?
Technorati Tags: Writing, Publishing, Writers Groups, Writing Groups, Writers Workshops, Novels, Goal-Setting, Schedules, Motivation, Success
July 19th, 2006 at 10:59 am
I totally agree about deadlines, but I seem to be one of those people who can set their own deadline and work within them. I think, as writers, we really need to learn to do that. I recently joined a ‘novel-in-a-week’ challenge and in the space of 7-8 days managed to write 118,000 words. No one forced me to do this - it was a challenge I set for myself to get the first draft of a new fantasy novel done. Well I failed - I still had about 10,000 words left to go to finish the first draft, but I also won big-time because working to that insane deadline forced me to do a few things differently. First, I learned to just go for it - it was only the second time I’ve ‘written into the mist’ and the first time I’ve just let the characters take me with them. Second, I wrote so fast I just got out of my own way. It was fantastic. I was on an adrenaline rush that kept me up nights, that kept me wanting to keep going. Of course the typos are legion, but I can fix that. The story just flowed.
The whole experience showed me what it is possible to accomplish in a week if you have thought about your story and know in a general way, what you want to write and are prepared to just sacrifice yourself to the story. I had one incident where I woke up sleeping with critical voice and I let him in (darn). Almost stopped me cold. The next morning he was there again, but I booted him out because I didn’t want to get caught in that place again. I wanted my adrenaline-high back. Critical voice slowed me down and sucked me dry.
But deadlines of composition aren’t the only ones a writer needs to set for themselves. I’ve also joined a couple of writer-friends in setting weekly goals for the more mundane parts of writing. Yes, we set pages that we want to complete, but we also set goals of getting queries or manuscripts sent out, of doing the edits that need to be done, of doing the research into possible markets for our work. So it seems deadlines aren’t something to be afraid of - at least for me. They are more like a series of hurdles in front of a jumping horse rider, something to be leapt, bringing the sense of exhilaration that getting over each hurdle brings. And that’s what a career in writing is all about, I’d say.
Happy editing, Robin!
Karen
July 19th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
The world doesn’t revolve around prima donna authors? You’re just making that up.
For the record, I have never put “Get boyfriend” on my calendar.
I work better with deadlines, especially with writing. I’m on a deadline now for one of those workshops. I’m horribly behind schedule, but that is S.O.P. for me. I’ll stop working and try to match what Karen did last week before the deadline. (By the way, AWESOME JOB, Karen!)