Stressed by deadlines!

Nateskate said:

How do you deal with dealines?

Click to expand...

For articles, reviews, etc., it's not a problem--that's easy and predictable writing for me. Book deadlines are another story. I'm fairly disciplined, and can keep to a regular schedule without anyone prodding me, but I don't do well with creative work if I'm under pressure. Book deadlines totally stress me out, and remove much of the enjoyment of writing. I've already made up my mind that I'm writing my next book on spec, which is probably not such a smart career move, but will really improve my mental health.

- Victoria

Deadlines

Nateskate said:

How do you deal with dealines? Perhaps it is different for someone in mid-career than it is with someone just starting. Also, having a stressful job doesn't help much, but I know I'm not alone there either.

I'm sure journalists probably laugh at this, having to deal with this every week.

Click to expand...

I don't know if there are any tricks to it or not. For whatever reasons, I've always, even when I first started writing, worked much better under deadline pressure. For me, deadlines are wonderful things.

Parkinson's Law states: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion."

For me, this has always been true. Give me six months to complete a job, and I'll probbaly complete it about one day before the deadline. Give me six weeks to complete the same job, and I'll probably still complete it one day before the deadline.

Maybe it's because I took a major in journalism, and/or because I wrote a bunch of nonfiction early in my career, but deadlines are the only thing on earth that stop me from procrastinating. I love 'em to death.

Nateskate said:

I'm sure journalists probably laugh at this, having to deal with this every week.

Click to expand...

Every week? My media friends have deadline every day, every hour... it's not a job for everyone for sure.

I'm with James, though. I've always told people: Why should I work for 5 days on something if I could do it in an hour? Efficiency is laziness for smart people!

Deadlines work for me.

Which doesn't really explain why I'm a few thousand words behind on this year's NaNo...but hey. I'll get there in the end. Probably a few minutes before midnight on the 30th.

maestrowork said:

Efficiency is laziness for smart people!

Click to expand...

I love this!

I worked for a paper where I had three stories a day -- in five or six hours too. And somehow I'd get it done. Now I write for a paper where I'm given five days for one story and I always end up turning it in on the day it's due. (I keep telling myself that I'd like to get it in the day before - but oh well....)

This nano thing has been interesting. I keep thinking, if this was a real novel that a publisher was waiting for...I'd be in trouble!

The only thing I really remember from my freshman english comp class, way back in the day, is that my teacher beat a certain point into our heads.

"Writers Meet Deadlines!"

I hated her for it at the time.

Now though, I have come to relish deadlines. . . at least those imposed by outside forces (I make my own deadlines and usually overshoot them by. . . well, two months or more) for if I have a deadline, then by golly I am going to get something done. The best feeling as a writer is when you actually get something done. (That is before getting published, which I suppose would be getting something done anyway) This is also the reason I have started to submit towards more literary magazines and short story contests recently. I go find when they are accepting submissions or when the contest ends and try to create and entirely new work just for them, so that means I have to start the blasted thing, edit and revise, print and package (with the postage, always an enemy of mine) before said time is up. Without those concrete finish lines I just may always call myself a writer and never actually be one.

Weren