The Down Side of Quotas

One of the ways writers attempt to make themselves produce more words fast is to give themselves quotas and/or deadlines. “I will write 1,000 words/four pages/for three hours every day/week/month.”

Most of the time, this doesn’t work terribly well for me, for several reasons. The most obvious one is that arbitrary production quotas are usually just that – arbitrary. There’s no downside to missing them, and my backbrain therefore knows that they are safe to put off until fifteen minutes before...