Deadline on the Horizon
I have a deadline.
My fourth book, Summerdown, is due August 1st. I honestly don’t know if it’s going to be finished in time. So, since it’s the first thing on my mind (also the second, third, fourth, and fifth), I’m going to introduce myself to storytellersunplugged by talking about, hey, deadlines, and the things I am learning as I struggle to meet this one.
It is, of course, the hallmark of a professional writer to meet his or her deadlines. To do so calmly. Cheerfully. With a song on his or her lips!
Well, okay. Maybe not that last bit.
The first thing to remember in dealing with a deadline is to stay calm. They can smell fear. Also, your productivity is better if you aren’t in a state of gibbering panic. Therefore, it’s better not to let yourself get too worked up, no matter how far in the hole you feel like you are. Perspective is important, not least to keep you from behaving like a drama queen in front of friends, family, and random passersby.
(And by “you,” of course, I mean “me.”)
No matter how important your deadline is, the world will keep revolving if you miss it.
Really.
Try for some Zen, if you can.
The second thing to remember in dealing with a deadline is not to compare yourself to other writers. Especially, god help you, to your friends. There will always be someone who writes faster than you do, or whose first drafts are cleaner. Or both. And what you have to accept is that this information is MEANINGLESS. How fast other people are writing their books has no relevance to your book. You are not in competition with them, and using other people to beat yourself up is unfair, both to you and to them.
Sometimes, in order to accept this, you have to tell yourself that those other, faster, better, prettier writers are space aliens. This is okay, as long as it gets you to Stop. Comparing. Yourself. To. Other. Writers. Some of my dearest friends are space aliens to me right now.
Zen is also good here, if you can find it.
The third thing to remember in dealing with a deadline is to listen to the book. Do not let the mob in your brain chanting DEADLINE DEADLINE DEADLINE drown out the things you need to hear. If the book is taking a wrong turn, you need to figure that out at the intersection, not twenty miles down the wrong road. If that means you have to stop while your backbrain figures out how to tell you what’s going on, then stop. It will save time in the long run, and you will hate yourself and the book less.
In other words, it’s the book that is the point of the exercise, and it is the book that, ultimately, you are accountable to. Do not forget that in the clamor.
The fourth thing to remember in dealing with a deadline is that you can do this. Set goals. Make them reasonable. Allot yourself breaks and rewards. Novel-writing is an endurance sport. You can’t do it in a sprint. Do whatever it takes to stay both consistently productive and relatively sane.
Meet your deadline if it’s humanly possible. But if you can’t, it’s your job to come as close as you can. Not to waste your time and your editor’s time with your writer angst and Woe is me! Be professional even in your failure, and make it as minimal a failure as you can. Even after you lose the race, you still keep running.
And, yeah, work on that Zen. It’s gonna come in handy.
