Writing, as an activity, often is a free-form sort of thing. Writers arrive to the work, and they work for a certain amount of time or until the words satisfy them. Such constraints can be enough, but for the writers who want to become better, deadlines are necessary.
Deadlines take writers from the level of amateur to professional. Professional writers show up to do the work regardless of how they’re feeling. They don’t wait for inspiration to strike; they find it in the midst of the writing.
If they decide to become even more serious with their writing, they move from setting orchestrated meetings with the work to setting deadlines for the work. They want to turn their work into an editor or a publisher, so they set a timeline for it. They add buffers because they’re well aware that life happens. A family member or a friend becomes ill and requires care. Perhaps they catch the same virus and can’t even move from their beds for a few days. Their deadlines account for those things, and, when they aren’t enough, they’re wise enough to show themselves grace rather than castigation for weeks on end. They reassess their schedules and set new deadlines.
Why? Deadlines contain a secret power. They motivate initially in much the same way that a fitness instructor motivates new attendees. Such motivation is nine-tenths tough love, but it has the desired effect. Meeting other goals becomes easier because the body and mind have become accustomed to the work required of them.
Deadlines have another power; they act as milestones. When writers reach them, they can look at what they’ve accomplished so far. They can relish the victory for a time and allow those victories to spur them onto more action. They don’t look at the milestone and think about how far they have to go; such a mindset breeds discouragement. They instead look at the milestones and see them for what they are – testaments that they are doing the work and that they are going to finish it. They know this for a fact because they’ve done what writers who want to be better writers do. They’ve set deadlines.
Image: Kalexander2010 (Creative Commons)
This really spoke to me. I had three writing deadlines this past week,
and felt like I was running to catch up since they took much longer to
complete than I thought.
@anti fatigue mats Sometimes it’s hard to gauge how long a project will take. I know my usual time, but I get curveballs every so often.