By Marguerite Martin Gray Are you goal oriented or deadline driven? I would like to say deadline driven is purpose driven, but it is not all the time. I have always been an over achiever in school, work, life. That has landed me in places where I look around and wonder “Now, what do I do to sustain this?” For …
Ensuring Your Deadline Doesn’t Kill You
By DiAnn Mills Writers value deadlines. Well, maybe not. But the looming dates do help to keep us focused, on task, and writing, our favorite activity on the planet. Sometimes though we think those deadlines are out to kill us. What’s the balance? How can we end the love/hate relationship and turn our writing process into a positive one? The …
Deadlines: One of the Best Kept Secrets in Writing
by Kathy Harris A goal is a dream with a deadline. – Napoleon Hill Want to know a secret? I love deadlines! And I think you should too. Search online for the quote above, and you’ll find it, or one like it, attributed to a number of different people. I first heard it from one of my early writing mentors, multi-published author Kaye Dacus. Despite …
Deadlines: Friend or Foe?
By Jan Drexler Whether self-imposed or contracted, deadlines are a real part of writing. And real writers need to know how to handle deadlines in the way that works best for them. Last fall, I had a tight deadline. I buckled down to work on it and was making good progress…until a family crisis intervened. I don’t know about you, …
First Chapters Syndrome
By Rondi Bauer Olson Last year my nebulous-but-fantastic-sounding goal was to “write every day.” I did a pretty good job. Five or six days a week I opened my laptop and typed a few hundred to a few thousand words. After twelve months, my word count was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, my useful output wasn’t. The first project I started working …
Make Friends with your Deadline
By Denise Hunter They don’t call ’em deadlines for nothing. I’m pretty sure it’s because most of us feel half dead when we get there. Add a hectic holiday or an unexpected illness, and you may not be the only one ready to tear out your hair. But if you plan ahead and work steadily, you can reach your deadline …