Deadlines - Writing Under the Hammer

Hammer fall Art Print

Deadlines.

Every writers' bane, right?

Wrong.

Leonard Bernstein, director of the New York Philharmonic and one of the most talented and successful musicians in USA history, had a different take. He said:

To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.

Image from Who do Writer's Really Write for?

But still... deadlines. What a bitch... Especially during the 'holidays'. 

Love them or hate them, every published writer has to deal with the.

At least they are well named.

The History of Deadlines

Originally, a deadline was literal, an actual line drawn around a prison. If prisoners crossed it, the guards could shoot to kill.

Nowadays, it can feel as dire. Miss a publisher's deadline and the writer's entire career can derail, especially in commercial fiction.

Hard and Soft Deadlines

Yet, not all deadlines are equal. In the industry, they call them soft or hard. The soft deadlines are malleable. It's expected to edit and revise beyond them. The hard deadlines? That's the shoot to kill order, only it's the career that dies, not the author. (Some writers feel it's one and the same...)

Ancient Magic Script - Etsy

Those soft deadlines are important. For example, I set myself writing goals for new work - a scene a day, or 2k words a day, depending on the stage of the story. I stick to them, 95% of the time, but I don't burst into flames if one day is missed.

With hard deadlines, the only sane thing to do is meet them. Without complaint. There are too many publishable authors ready to take your place if you prove too 'difficult' to work with.

Remember, shoot to kill.

Support for Meeting Deadlines

There are a few things you can do meet every deadline every thrown at you. One is to make sure your agent has negotiated reasonable expectation for turnaround times with your editor BEFORE you sign the contract.

Another is all about the planning. I map out the editorial schedule and make sure I clear the decks for each phase of the process.

Sock up on essentials! 

I stock up on necessities (coffee, cat food, quick but healthy foodstuffs) before the edits come back to me. I also write blog posts, columns, reports and newsletters well in advance so there is nothing else on my plate when the time comes to write.

What About Procrastination?

If there is a tendency to procrastinate, explore possible reasons - fear of failure, fear of success, Mars in Taurus, Cancer or Pisces, not loving the project -  and find solutions, again, BEFORE the deadline looms.

Best Tip Ever

Set an intention ahead of time to meet the deadline efficiently and with massive amounts of creative savvy and ease. 

How to do that?

Go here for details but this, from my friend Jeannette Maw, will put you in the sweet spot.

On-the-Fly Intention Setting
(for when you don’t have a lot of advance prep time)

1. Focus your thoughts on the result or experience you want (deadline met, in our case)
2. Let it go

Could it get any easier? The only thing better than how simple it is, is how effective you’ll find it!

Have a deadline story to tell? I'd love to hear it in the comments!

Now, back to work!

* * *

Kim Falconer's New YA Fantasy Series is out March 2020 - The Crown of Bones. (Writing under the pen name A.K. Wilder)

Also, check her urban fantasy  - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel and the SFF Quantum Enchantment Series. 

You can find Kim on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or pop over and throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site.

Contact at kimfalconer.com or akwilder.com

7 Habits of Highly Effective Slackers

As with a few of my other writers on the blog, I'm under deadline. During this particular deadline, I'm noticing that I am getting VERY good at avoiding actually writing. I am being productive, just at the wrong things.

And as with any true problem, admitting and defining the behaviors will only help you get better.

Here are my 7 Habits of Highly Effective Slackers:

1. Having my e-mail open to respond to any emergencies that might possibly happen. No emergencies have arisen so far, but they could.

2. Cleaning- When I'm on deadline, my base boards are lemon-fresh, the entire house is dust-free (including ceiling fans), and my fridge is spotless.

3. Taking pictures of your food-plants-animals. Kerrelyn had this problem too last month and I fully commiserate. My baby girl wanted to be famous on a blog, so here she is as a puppy. My phone is now full of my babies being cute.

4. Over commitment to organizing. Now, some organizing is necessary, but we are talking above
and beyond ORGANIZING. Renaming photo files on my computer, rearranging the
pictures on my Pinterest page. Plotting out the novel until
there is no detail left un-plotted. As a die heard pantser, you know somethings wrong when I get
to this point.

5. Replaying Angry Birds levels to get perfect scores.


6. Needing to know every single detail of your BFF-significant other-dog's day. Asking deep and probing questions about what kind of sandwich they had for lunch and calling it "research."

7. Baking. Lots and Lots of baking. Good for my co-workers, but probably not for the book. So far I've perfected strawberry buttercream and this peanut butter goodie.

These are only seven. I'm sure that we all have our procrastination techniques. If you share, I'll pick one
commentor to get a copy of Diaries of an Urban Panther so you can procrastinate something too!

____________________________________________

Amanda Arista

Diaries of an Urban Panther

Claws and Effect

www.amandaarista.com

Things I learned from my copy editor

Hello there,

Like Kerrelyn, I'm in deadline hell right now trying to hammer out the third installment of the Diaries of an Urban Panther series. As I'm putting Violet and Chaz through the ringer once again, I'm trying to keep in mid some of the things that the copy editor pointed out in my last book so she won't be so frustrated with me in this book. See writers are not perfect. We are human and we make mistakes, but like humans, can learn.

That's pretty much where the human part ends, but that's another blog for another time.

Okay, the five things I learned from my copy editor.

1. I have really random references. The copy editor sent me a style sheet with all the people names that I used. This list included: Neil Patrick Harris, Vin Diesel, and Yoda.

2. I don't write about shapeshifters, I write about shape-shifters. Just to about to write about hyphens being the devil.

3. My APA style brain spells out numbers under ten. But Chicago style says spell out all numbers under 100. Another reason I feel schizophrenic sometimes.

4. The dash. I'm not even going to go into the difference between a em dash and an en dash, but she did point out that there was a subtle difference between ending a line of dialogue in a dash and ending in an ellipsis. Ending with a dash means that the person was cut off versus an ellipsis means that the person trailed off. Which made me notice just how many times Violet interrupted people. She's a little rude.

5. Apparently, I spell lots of things the British way. Which is appropriate considering my new motto for finishing this book.

So as I'm making sure that Violet survives the massive nasties that I'm throwing at her (hint- I've been watching snake attack videos on YouTube all week), I'm also trying to be a better writer, though I'm pretty sure that hyphens are going to be the death of me.

------------------------------------

Amanda Arista

www.amandaarista.com