“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
Great quote by Douglas Adams. Not useful, but entertaining. And uncannily reminiscent of the writing journey.
Now I’m working with a publisher, there are deadlines to be met. And not the kind of self-imposed deadlines that always carry with them the hint of flexibility, which can be enough to widen any crack in your determination. With industry pressure, these deadlines carry with them every heavy sense of the first half of the word.
Deadlines don’t seem like fun, but they’re necessary. They’re scary because they make you accountable.
I’ve known this my entire career. As a corporate copywriter, I’ve needed to meet deadlines because the next step in the process needs me to.
As I’ve moved into working with publishers, it’s no different, and what I’ve learned over those 25 years still applies now. Yes it’s somewhat methodical and that seems out of place in writing, but this is where the rubber of business hits the creative road. You need to deliver if you’re going to see your story brought to life.
So what do you do if you if you’re faced with a deadline:
- I never – ever – think of a deadline in terms of the date it actually is. The minute you look at a deadline as June 15, for example, you subconsciously focus on that date. I’ve found that that’s not ideal. That’s not the date you should be focussing on. That’s the date you can’t miss. So instead what you should be doing is bringing the deadline in by a day/week/whatever’s appropriate. Then forget about the original deadline. If you know you’ve got some leeway, you’ll use it.
- Break it up in terms of time. With the deadline I was set for my major edits, I knew I had six weeks total. (Five weeks when I move the deadline in). Two weeks for the first draft, two weeks for edits, one week to polish it.
- Break it up in terms of milestones. I had six chapters that needed work. Two weeks for the first draft – easy. Three chapters per week.
- Identify what you’re likely to procrastinate about. For you, it might be “you know what, I haven’t checked if I got any responses to my Facebook post”, you check for, you know, just a minute, and the next thing you know you’re watching some Korean schoolkid playing Abba songs on a bassoon.
- Do something. I had a couple of writing sessions where I couldn’t start. It just wasn’t flowing. So I decided to search for every time I used the word only, then replaced it. That unblocked the pipes a little. A second search-and-destroy on adverbs and the flow resumed. And writing is about momentum. I find that when I’m back in the groove it keeps coming.
- And lastly – and this is an important one – give yourself a treat for meeting the deadline (or a major milestone). You’ve worked hard and kept your promise to yourself (or an agent or a professional). Celebrate that.
So how do you handle deadlines, and what tips do you have that you could share with other writers?
Four friends reconnect fifteen years after graduation on a promised trip to the Australian outback. Time has changed them. At graduation life was all about unfulfilled potential. Fifteen years down the track, it feels a lot like regret.
As they get lost in outback Australia they find more than harsh beauty of an unspoilt land… … they discover how the road of life delivered them to where they are now.
And getting back requires them to determine where they’ll go from here.
Based in South Australia, David Rawlings is an award-winning author, and a sports-mad father-of-three with his own copywriting business who reads everything within an arm’s reach. He writes
that take you deeper into life, posing questions of readers to explore their own faith and how they approach life.Where the Road Bends – a novel based in outback Australia – is out now! Why not take a virtual vacation during your time at home?
David’s debut novel – The Baggage Handler – won the 2019 Christy Award for First Novel. His second novel – The Camera Never Lies – focuses on honesty in relationships and is now available.
He is currently signed with Thomas Nelson and represented by The Steve Laube Agency.