I Gave Myself a Deadline --- NOW what?

Deadlines.

I have a love/hate relationship with them.

Having gone through the process of having deadlines with my first traditionally published book, Sandwich, with a Side of Romance, I know their value and their horror.

There is something GRAND about having someone else tell you, "I need by ." I know, it doesn't SOUND grand. But to have a concrete date to work by and plan by is kinda nice sometimes. It helps prioritizing be made easier. It gives a really good excuse to bow out of things, "Sorry, I can't. I'm on deadline."

But there is also a lot of STRESS in that word too. What if I can't do it? What if I don't have it done by then? Will they cancel my contract? Will they think I'm a difficult author if I don't meet it and refuse to contract me again??? It's like watching a bomb with seconds tick down on it while you're trying to defuse it and save your entire city from distruction... Okay, maybe not exactly like that, but you can see the parallels, right?!?

I'm now on a different time table though.

I'm indie-publishing at the moment (while working on that next contract though...) so my deadlines are all self-given.

Ack.

Here's the thing about self-given deadlines.

You still have the stress.

But none of the grandure. You have a date but there is now power behind it. It's a concrete date, but our brains (or, at least MY brain) views that word "concrete" more like "sandy" giving it more flexibility than it needs.

So how do we make ourselves, as indie published authors OR unpublished authors trying to stay on top of things, keep our internal deadlines?

Here are a few tips from an author who has self-admittedly not figured it all out yet... but is trying!

- BE SPECIFIC. Don't say, "I want to have my first draft done by fall." or even "I want to have it done by November." No, Make that November 14th at 11:59pm, thank you very much. It makes that "sandy" deadline a little more firm.

- PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA around your deadline. I have a deadline of having my first draft of my next book COMPLETED by Tuesday at 11:59 p.m.So, I announced that I'd be taking the week prior to that off of blogging. I knew doing both would divide my attention and I needed to focus as much as possible on meeting my deadline. I'm limiting Facebook time (I really SHOULD limit it more) and bowed out of a few other personal things because I knew I needed to prioritize my writing. Social media should SUPPORT your writing, not distract from it.

- BE REALISTIC. "I'm going to finish my 80k word romance in two weeks! YES I CAN DO IT!" No--- you probably can't. I mean, maybe, but probably not. Make a goal that is realistic for you to hit, otherwise you're setting yourself of for failure.

- DO THE MATH. How many words do you write a day? Let's say 1,000. Divide that by 80k... that's 80 days. Let's say you write 5 days a week (everyone needs a break) so that's 16 weeks or about 4 months to get a first draft done. Set your date accordingly, and also factor in great things like holidays and vacations and busy times of the year, and add time accordingly. Do your OWN math with your OWN numbers, and set that deadline.


What about you? What things do you do to help hit your internal deadlines? Or do you just not MAKE deadlines? I'd love to know your thoughts either way!

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Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and author of Sandwich, With a Side of Romance and A Side of Faith. She blogs about finding JOY in the journey of LIFE at http://www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary.