For those of you who missed the blog last week (you know who you are), I apologize for the unscheduled hiatus. As this book edit-for-hire grows more and more intense, time is becoming an increasingly rare commodity.
I'm working on moving the blog(s) to an online e-zine / newsletter for writers. But that's not going to happen as quickly as I thought it might. So, for at least a little while longer, I'll continue to muse online right here. But perhaps not every day. It all depends on the whims of the mighty editing gods...
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I've made a pact with a friend of mine who's a script writer and features director.
We were both talking about ideas we had for cheap & scary horror / thrillers. We both liked each other's ideas -- but we're both terribly busy doing other people's stuff. So we've made a pact to each finish our respective screenplays by Halloween. With penalties for failure to make a particular deadline along the way.
Well – 12 o’clock midnight last night was our first deadline. We had to deliver an outline of our projects to each other or forfeit a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate. I finished mine and sent it with ten minutes to spare. As of right now, I haven’t seen his…
Already, this pact has been good for me. Though I procrastinated on it and got it done just under the wire – it did get done. Self-imposed deadlines are better than no deadlines at all. And, so often, the hardest deadline to make is the first one.
If you have something you’ve been hoping to get done, I encourage you to set yourself a series of attainable deadlines for doing it. If necessary, make yourself move heaven and earth to make the very first one. Then, your project will be officially “begun.” Something will have been done on it. It will exist somewhere other than just in your mind. That can provide the impetus you need to head toward your next deadline – and meet it, too.
The important thing is that you make your writing a priority. Remember the writer’s Golden Rule: No one cares more about your writing than you do.
If it’ll help you stay on track – you can always send me an Amazon.com gift certificate when you miss a self-imposed goal. It appears that I have begun to collect them. ☺
