Write On Time by Rebecca Besser
Write On Time
By Rebecca Besser
In the last year (a little over), I’ve been working part-time outside my home. This was after being a stay-at-home-mom/writer for years! Time constraints and everyday life as a wife and mother, plus now working, has made it extremely hard for me to find time to write. This has cut back in my word count and short story submissions.
When I do decide to try to get a short story written – preferring to spend my time on longer works – I’ve found that I’m having difficulty getting the stories written in a timely manner to meet the deadline.
Deadlines mean different things to different authors; they are either motivation to get things done, or something that can make us horribly disappointed in ourselves when we don’t meet them. They are an upper and/or a downer.
Lately, for me, they’ve been a downer. I’ll read a submission call I want to write for and try to work writing a story for it into my limited writing time, only to realize a month later that the deadline is a few days away and I have yet to write a single word for it.
If the call is something I really want to write for, I’ll go balls-to-the-wall and slam a story out really fast. If the call is something I’m not as excited about, I’ll usually let it slip unless I’m for some reason spontaneously inspired with a fantastic story idea. Sometimes, if it’s one I really want to make and know I won’t have anything for it on time, I’ll ask for an extension.
Have you ever asked for an extended deadline? Do you feel that’s too bold?
I would encourage you to do it, but only if you know for sure you can have something decent or possibly great to submit by the end of the extension. I can usually get away with this because I have a lot of short story credits to my name and am somewhat known in the anthology circles I travel in. But, even if you’re not as well known, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for an extension.
Here are the reasons you should ask if an extension is possible: 1) You don’t know how many “useable” submissions they’ve received and they could use a couple more stories to get the word count they’re after. 2) You have the unique opportunity to ask if there was a type of story the editor would have liked to have seen submitted and no one sent.
Those two reasons alone could get you an acceptance you thought had passed you by just because of a deadline.
Keep in mind also, that there will be more open submission calls that you’ll have plenty of time to write for. Don’t take every single one to heart. I don’t! If I did, I would be depressed with how my short story submissions have gone in the last year or so.
I’m currently staring a deadline in the eye and might have to ask for one of those extensions. I have a week left. I might, just might have the story finished in time to send it in…right on time!
Copyrights owned by Rebecca Besser, 2013. All rights reserved.
