Category: Time Management & Deadlines, Writing Life
Working in TV again has reminded me that I write well under the pressure of a deadline. Deadlines force me to stop procrastinating. Deadlines make me write faster. Deadlines keep me off the internet!
But what if you have no real deadlines? When story editors, producers and broadcasters are all expecting a script from me on a certain day, I must finish that script or else I’ll let everybody down, screw up the production schedule, and possibly get fired. Yet when writing my novel the only person (so far) expecting anything from me is me, so it’s easy to ignore or miss deadlines when the only real consequence is my own disappointment. To counteract this, I’ve come up with a 4 Deadline Strategies to motivate, scare or trick even the most lax writers into getting stuff done.