How Do You Feel About Deadlines?

Happy Friday, friends! Shannon here. 

FIRST OF ALL, thank you so much to those participating in our first ever Go Teen Writers Instagram challenge. We’ve been having a ton of fun and it is never, ever too late to jump into a challenge. For more information, click here or visit us on Instagram.

We also want to thank you all for making our summer panels so much fun. We are learning so much about you all as we read through your answers. 

If you’re just joining us, we’ve decided to do something new for the months of June, July, and August. We’re taking turns answering writing questions, just as if we’re sitting on a panel at a fancy writing conference. The best part is, we’d love you to answer the questions as well.

Deadlines and I are okay. They don’t stress me out too much, but part of that is I know how much work I can get done, and I don’t allow deadlines that I don’t think I can meet. Some seasons they pile up, but mostly I do well with it.

The deadlines I set for myself usually revolve around my kids’ school calendar. Something like, “I want to finish this first draft by the time school is out for the summer.” Or, “I want to finish edits before spring break.” As much as I can, I try to build my schedule so that I can really enjoy and maximize the usefulness of being away from my book while my kids are out of school.

 

Deadlines are important to keep me on task. For the past several books, I’ve found myself dealing with deadlines that were too tight—and part of that was life circumstances adding stress and time constraints that I never could have anticipated. But even if I didn’t have a publisher or an agent giving me a deadline, I’d still give myself deadlines because they help me stay on schedule. I have a general idea of how long it takes me to write a book, so I will make an estimate and choose a deadline, then I’ll count up the workdays on the calendar until that deadline, then divide my estimated work count by the number of workdays, and that will give me a daily goal. This keeps me on track both in making sure I write or edit at least X amount of words per workday, but it also keeps me from living in work-a-holic mode, because I’m the kind of person who could sit at that computer all day and there would always be more I could do. Since I know that’s not healthy or wise, having an end goal helps me know when I’ve worked enough and it’s okay to stop for the day.

It’s a love/hate relationship, I think. I definitely write faster when I’m on a deadline and there’s an argument to be made that I actually writer better on a deadline. And yes, I do impose deadlines on myself if I’m not working with a publisher, but I’m nice and I let myself off the hook if life takes over. I probably shouldn’t do that.

How about you guys? How do you feel about deadlines? Do you impose them on yourself?