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I need a deadline.
In high school and college I thrived on deadlines. 10 page
research paper I haven’t started due in two weeks? I couldn’t even read the
instructions without getting distracted. 10 page research paper I haven’t even
started due tomorrow morning? I AM SO ON IT! I am at my best at the last
minute.
Another way of putting it: I am a MASTER PROCRASTINATOR! If
there is a tomorrow to do it, I will put it off until that tomorrow comes.
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This has presented a problem when it comes to my writing. I
have the desire to write, I WANT to write, I have the ideas, the story, the
characters screaming at me to write down their story so they can stop re-living
the same scene over-and-over again. But when it comes down to write or watch
ONCE UPON A TIME (again)? Write or bake cookies? Write or SLEEP?! The “or
<Insert procrastination here>” has begun to win more and more as the
holidays kick into gear and I find myself more and more exhausted each evening.
The solution seems so simple: Just give yourself a deadline!
Yeah… not so much. My brain doesn’t seem to respond to my “pretend deadlines”,
even when I call them “goals.”
So my wonderful husband has come up with a new solution. A
real deadline. A “if you want to go to BEA you need to have a full first draft
finished” deadline. And I WANT to go to BEA this year! And I
know what you’re thinking, BEA isn’t until next June… so have fun procrastinating
until May! But NO! Registration for
BEA opens this month. And soon after that I have to let people know if I’m in
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So now I have a deadline. My fully finished first draft is
due (to my husband) on February 15, 2012. And while I may spend the next few
weeks bogged down in all of the Christmas craziness (side note: how? How? HOW?!
Are we 19 days from CHRISTMAS!?) you better believe that as my deadline nears I’m
going to disappear completely, for hours/days on end, and I will be SO. ON. IT.
How do you guys push
yourselves to get your writing done? What about those days/weeks where
work/children/life is brain-meltingly crazy? Are you ready for the holidays?
What are some of the gifts on your wishlist?
LOL! I love that you have procrastination issues, too! I've been procrastinating for...oh...almost 20 years now. The sooner you can peel that monkey off your back, the better. And kudos to you for having an awesome husband to hold your feet to the fire. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI need a real deadline too. I wrote 50.000 words in Nano but the story is barely half done. I told myself I have to finish until the end of the year. Yeah, fat chance. I do well with deadlines, without them I find lots of more important stuff to do, like drinking tea.
ReplyDeleteSadly, BEA is not a good deadline for me, I live in Europe, so I need another "real" deadline.
And until I find one, I'll go read the novel for the Literature Course. *sigh* why isn't it Vacation yet?
Good luck on writing!