For the first time in about eight years, I’m drafting a novel on a publisher’s deadline.

Oh, I give myself deadlines all the time, and I’ve recently edited a book on a publisher’s deadline, but it’s been nearly a decade since I had to complete a first draft in a predetermined amount of time. And that means I have to reteach my body how to sit still and write even when I’d rather be doing something else. If I don’t make myself do the work, I will miss my deadline. And that has consequences for more than just me.

So let’s talk about it.

Why Hitting Your Deadline Matters

Your Reputation: When an author signs a contract with a publisher, the deadline for the work in question is generally detailed there. By signing the contract, it’s implied that you’ve looked at your calendar and the work to be done, and to the very best of your ability, you believe you can have the draft completed by that date.

While this job demands hefty doses of creativity, it also requires professionalism. Many of us are good at one, but not the other. To be taken seriously as an author, you must learn to marry these two responsibilities.

Hitting your deadlines says a lot about you, but first and foremost it says you make good on your word. While there are exceptions, and while publishers can choose to be gracious, your reputation within the industry, and certainly within the publishing house, will suffer if you make a habit of missing your deadlines.

The Master Calendar: Each publishing house has a master calendar and this calendar dictates the workload and deadlines of everyone working on a book. That includes professionals like your editor, the copyeditor, the proofreaders, the design team, marketing, publicity, and sales. The deadlines for every single one of these individuals is based on the author’s deadline. If you, the author, miss your deadline, you risk shifting everyone else’s schedule. Schedules that include many, many authors. The machine of publishing functions at its best when every author hits every deadline.

With everyone doing their job and completing their work as expected, it also makes it much easier to adjust the calendar if one author has to deal with something unexpected–maybe a family tragedy or a health issue–that would be a legitimate reason for reworking a deadline. Publishers want to have the flexibility to give grace where necessary, but it gets increasingly difficult if authors aren’t taking their deadlines seriously.

Personal Growth: Learning to hit a deadline generated by someone else is huge. Not only does it help others do their job and bolster your reputation as a professional, but it stretches your skills. It demands that you write consistently, and this is one of the hurdles many writers never clear.

When you teach yourself to return again and again to the page, even when the writing is hard and inspiration is scarce, you develop discipline. And discipline is almost always the difference between completed and uncompleted manuscripts. Finishing one book on time will help you finish the next one on time, because you’re not just fighting to hit a deadline, you’re planting the seeds of perseverance and dedication that will help you continue to hit one deadline after another.

How to Hit Your Deadline

Now that we’ve established just how important it is to hit that deadline, the question begs to be asked,

“How?”

How do you do this very important thing?

Set Achievable Goals: When I realized I had only five months to turn around a first draft, I got out my calendar and did a thing I usually avoid like the plague. I set word count goals. If I had my preference, I would much rather sit down at the computer with the goal of completing one scene a day. But being a discovery writer means I don’t often have my scenes mapped out. And without my scenes predetermined, I need some goals in place to ensure I meet this deadline.

While I don’t have every scene mapped out, I do have a synopsis that will guide me from the beginning of the story to the end. It’s the pitch I used to sell this book, and if I write 5k words a week using the synopsis to keep me on track, I can put enough words on the page to have a first draft together in four months. That leaves me an entire month to edit those words it into shape.

Would I like more time? Sure. Is there enough time built into this schedule for beta readers? I doubt it. And while it would be nice to get feedback from a few peers before sending my manuscript off to my editor, the short time frame may not allow for that until after my first draft has been submitted. That’s something I’ll have to deal with when the time comes.

BUT! I can absolutely write 5k words per week. It’s possible I can do more, but I need to be realistic. My life isn’t just writing. I have a family to care for and community responsibilities to see to. If I shoot for goals outside the realm of possibility, I set myself up for failure.

Show Up: There’s a reason writing consistently is a problem for many of us. It’s hard work, friends. Hard. Work. We do not FEEL inspired every single day. And we have exacerbated this problem with our phones and our video games and the endless entertainment options ever at our fingertips.

You and I have very short attention spans, but the best way to teach your inspiration to show up when you do, is to first show up yourself. The more often you do it, the better you get at it, and eventually your muse, your inspiration, your desire (call it what you will), learns to show up when you need it. Maybe not in vast quantities every day, but consistently. That consistency will serve you well, and those bursts of brilliance will still come giving you a supercharged day on occasion.

Those are the best writing days: when consistency meets inspiration. But if you sit around waiting for those big bursts, you’ll never, ever hit your deadline.

Don’t Break Promises to Yourself: If you say you’re going to write 5k words a week, do it. If you say you’re going to write one scene a day, do it. And if you can’t, if life gets in the way, make sure you have a backup plan built in to every goal you set.

For example, my goal is to write 5k words a week. Ideally, I’d like to write 1k words during each weekday while my kids are at school. That’s the plan, but things crop up. This week I was derailed by an appointment at the DMV and coffee with a new friend, but I have a plan for that.

I call it “the weekend.” If I haven’t gotten to 5k words by Friday, I have two days to play catch up. The upside of this backup plan is that even if I’ve screwed up and haven’t written a single word all week long, I’ll never have more than 5k words to write over the course of a weekend. 5k words is a lot, but it’s absolutely doable. By taking this book 5k words at a time, I’ll never be more behind than that.

It’s a HUGE gift to give yourself, friends. Staying on track allows me to rest when it’s not time to write, and it gives me the freedom and the mandate to get lost in my story when it is.

I’m still building up my stamina for this current schedule, but I’m already liking the results. I appreciate being on track. It reminds me that this is a career, not a hobby. I’m a professional and it serves me well to act like it. I think you’ll find the same is true for you, even if you’re simply building good habits for the day when you sign that contract.

Tell me, have you set any goals for your writing this year? I’d love to hear them.

Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.

Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.

It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.

To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.

For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.