When working on original work- and therefore not necessarily having an editor or someone else that you have to answer to about due dates- how to you keep yourself working? Or, alternatively, how do you stop your stories from spiralling out of control?

This is a GREAT question.

I work better with a deadline, I just do. It’s not discipline, I’m still working. But a deadline makes me work towards a finish line for a project, even if I may go over by a bit.

So when I do work that’s not for an editor, I make darn sure it’s a project I truly care about, so that I WANT to put pen to paper, if that makes sense.

Good question!  I guess it’d be a  lot harder if I hated writing, but I dearly love it.