Deadlines. Act on it, or put it off?

The best way to work around this -- and really some of the best advice I think any writer can take -- is to make writing a part of your normal schedule. If you're not doing anything else, you're writing (not watching TV, not playing video games, etc.) IMHO, it's less about finding time to write regularly than getting yourself to a point where you have to find time to not write, where the decision to take a day or two off has to be conscious and based in a real reason.

That said, yeah, of course I kick into high gear when I know a deadline is coming. The difference is that now I do that a month or two before the deadline, instead of a couple of days, and I've already made progress by then; that way, you can use that deadline rush for polishing, strong editing and rewriting.

I do the same thing. A regular writing schedule does help, but I find deadlines motivate me to keep that regular schedule!

I don't have deadlines, but back in my school daze I did - tried not to put things off till they became a rush, though. That only happened if I was mega-busy the whole time with other class-work as well.

I do make writing a regularly scheduled part of my day, though. Something gets written down every day, no matter how little or how long. Always something.

I've never been able to do an assignment early. I always do them last minute. But oddly, that works for me... so I dunno what to tell you.

I loved deadlines when I had them, and it took me a while to figure out how to keep on track without them - but now I am in the same boat Claudia's in - trying to find time to do anything other than write. I keep swinging wide of that elusive happy medium.

For a while I was part of a group of novel writers and we all sent one another a new chapter every three weeks, which was fabulous inspiration for me. When that broke up I started making myself sit in front of the PC after work for at least an hour; and slowly that hour became the 4-hours-daily thing that it currently is.

Apparently my mother was right all along about art being a discipline. I have no intention of telling her so, though.

Deadlines vs procrastination?

I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Deadlines

I don't need deadlines to make me write, I write every day. But I do need deadlines to make me work on a specific project. If it weren't for deadlines, I'd spend far too much time working on projects that are easy, that are a bit more enjoyable, etc.

Deadlines, and the guarantee that I'm going to be sitting down and writing pretty much every day, barring Sunday, is what gets the work done.

I am a master procrastinator, even at school. I'd wait until the very last minute -- knowing my abilities and the difficulty of the work, it could be an hour or a couple of days -- and I strive on that. The closer it gets the more "productive" I get. It doesn't guarantee quality, though. Sometimes a rush job is just a rush job. But I get it done -- adrenaline is a good thing.

Making a schedule and to-do list and cross that off work for me unless I really feel crappy. But they certainly help ease my mind if the project is a bit complicated -- so I know I won't be scrambling to figure things out at the last minute.

Kudos for taking your first step and sticking with your schedule.

Good luck.

When I'm on a project, I write 7-days a week until it's done. I hate taking a day off. Writing for me is like a diesel engine--takes forever to warm up, but once it's going, it'll go forever. If I stop for a few days, it takes a while to get going again, so I set a word-count goal of 1,500-2,000/day, and just chug along.

I like what Douglas Adams said about deadlines: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."

Procrastination is awesome. Unfortunately, it has rather bad consequences in some cases. :/

If I know that I have to do some writing, and I'm running out of time, then I try to get myself into the mood with some music or a movie. If I'm writing fiction, then I choose something appropriate for the emotions that I want to invoke when writing--for example, I'll watch a tragedy or listen to some quiet, sad music if I'm writing a sad scene. If it's a battle scene I'd listen to something like "Ride of the Valkryies".

Writing non-fiction, like essays, is a bit harder. Unlike my fiction writing, which is mostly organic, I prefer to have an outline ready for my essay. This makes the experience less painful. Then I just take it one paragraph at a time, and I force myself to write a rough copy. I don't care how good it is, how unpolished it reads: finishing a draft is my first goal. Then I take a break. Depending on how much time I have left, I'll polish it up and send it to a friend who has volunteered to read it over for me. He or she will give me suggestions, and then I'll revise, one paragraph at a time. At the end of it all, my essay is much stronger. I have one friend in particular who is so good at rending my stuff to shreds (but also knows when something I've written is good and should be left as it is).

Beta readers really help motivate me, perhaps because the changes that they propose have come from another set of eyes. They've taken the time to read the piece, so I feel responsible for giving them a return on that investment by improving it. If I notice a flaw, I'll probably just say, "Yeah, I'll fix that later" and go back to doing nothing. :r

I hate deadlines. I hated them in college, I hate them now. But developing an approach that makes you write, whether you want to or not, is going to be important if you want to write and make money at it.

I write an answer-the-question column for a magazine. Typical approach is for my editor to send me the question on Monday and want it on Wednesday. Forty-eight hours to research and write approximately 1,000 words. If it isn't there on Wednesday, it doesn't go in, and I don't get paid.

Is this reasonable? Probably not. But this is the way my editor works, and I need to deal with it.

When Equine Liability was in the editing process, I'd get it back from my publisher, with corrections, and a note saying, "Could I have it done by next week?"

Writing when you don't want to write sucks. If you want to become a professional, though, you have to learn how to deal with it. With my magazine article, it usually involves five minutes of swearing, then re-arranging my life to get it done. College is a learning opportunity, whether it involves learning how to recover from a keg party by the next morning or having to write when you don't want to.

If tight deadlines are what you need to make you work, just wait until you have to explain to your child why you have to miss their softball game because you screwed around on a deadline and now no longer have time to go to their game. I've learned that when I have a long deadline, I cut it in half, and tell myself it needs to be done by that date. Reduces my stress levels, but I'm also aware that some deadlines are just not going to have any time. You just have to go out and get her done.

Jim Clark-Dawe

jclarkdawe said:

I've learned that when I have a long deadline, I cut it in half, and tell myself it needs to be done by that date.

Jim Clark-Dawe

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Interesting approach. I may have to try it. My approach adds to stress levels. If I have a six month deadline, and I know I can write the novel in two months, I wait until two months before deadline to begin writing.

Jamesaritchie said:

Interesting approach. I may have to try it. My approach adds to stress levels. If I have a six month deadline, and I know I can write the novel in two months, I wait until two months before deadline to begin writing.

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Otherwise known as the "Scarletpeaches' seeing how long you can lie in bed and still be on time for your appointments" approach.