How to Nail Your Character's Personality

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First allow me to start with my greatest writing pet peeve. I totally dislike filling out the character personality forms. You know, the ones that ask fifty to one hundred annoying questions about your character--that you have no clue how to answer.

Do I really need to know my MC's birthday, favorite color, hobby, or if he/she sleeps on the right or left side of the bed, prefers to wear jeans or dress clothes, etc if it doesn't pertain to the story?

Yes, yes, I understand that by completing these forms I could better "know" my character. But the truth is, I don't. 

I don't know if my character will melt at the sight of a daisy with one remaining petal and the words to follow are "He loves me not". 



Or if MC will: 

*know how to fix a tire, 
*sing like crystal, 
*laugh at a snarky joke, 
*press her hand on the chest of the most attractive man in the world then suddenly think to dab the hot chocolate from her lips before he kisses her, 
*cry over a Hallmark commercial
*inhale food or daintily eat small forkfuls
*knock soft or loud on a door when angry

We can't assume all people respond the same. Not all angry people bang on a door or ball their fist, or furrow their brows, or...

It is HARD to get inside an MCs head with the sacred fifty to one hundred character questions.

All right, Mary, you might be saying. How do you suggest the problem be solved?

I propose we do a sixteen part class discussing the character personality puzzle together. No need to sign up, and if you miss one, you can easily scroll back to the previous class. Each post will stand independent, this is not a skyscraper building block course.

Are you ready to give it a whirl? I hope so.

Let's start with an Introduction.

We will look at sixteen different character personalities. Each one will include male and female examples to help you better understand how this type of character would respond in a given situation. 

What we will be looking at are character personality only and not physical appearance. 

For example: A character is sitting on a bench waiting for transportation to work. The bus turns onto their street. How would a Forrest Gump character respond? You already know, right? The picture is in your head. Quick, jot down in the comment section what popped in your mind. Remember we will be discussing the personality only. Your MC will have different physical features and will, most likely, not look at all like Forrest Gump

Now, imagine a Marilyn Monroe character sitting on that bench? Oh, now we have a very different response, right? I don't have to suggest anything. Your mind is already there and could write either scene.  Quick, jot down in the comment section what popped in your mind.

See? 

No, I'm not suggesting this will be easy. But what I am suggesting is by determining which one of sixteen character personalities belong to your MC you will be able to paint the best 3-D, heartfelt stories because your character will be consistent and although he/she grows in their journey, they will respond to situations in conjunction with their personality--and not because of their birthdate. (yeah...got the sarcasm thing going...hanging head)

Because we will be celebrating Christmas, part one will be on January 7 and address the character who is outgoing, creative, empathetic, and open minded. Yes, all of this in one character!

Are your characters stuck in quicksand, begging to be free of trivial details to  express their personality? To live their life to the fullest?

Have you struggled to make your MC unique, just as you are unique? 

We are more than our outsides...more than details...we are heart and soul.

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If you found any typos in today's post...Mary Vee, (that's me sheepishly grinning), is waving her hand as the guilty party. 

If you have questions or would like this topic discussed in greater detail, let me know in the comment section. I'll gladly do the research and write a post...just for you :)

Mary has moved to Michigan with her husband, closer to her three college kids. She misses the mountains of Montana, but loves seeing family more often. She writes young adult mystery/adventure Christian fiction, is honing marketing and writing skills, and loves to pen missionary and Bible adventure stories on her ministry blog, God Loves Kids.

Visit Mary at her website and her ministry blog to families: God Loves Kids. Or chat on Facebook or Twitter

The Beauty of a Fresh, Blank Page

The process of starting a new project is different for every writer. Maybe it begins with a story read in the news or ignited by the winking flicker of a strange dream. Maybe it starts with a character, an unfamiliar face with a past that won't leave you alone. And what writers do with that idea is just as varied. Some have a strict routine that really works for them, down to what snacks and drinks they have arranged at the ready, even.  

My (newly agented! YAY!) critique partner, Anne Love, is brilliant. We call her The Character Whisperer because she's so perceptive about human nature that she crafts these gorgeous characters that practically do all of the story work for her :) Her blog post earlier this week inspired me to share how I begin a story. And it helps that that's exactly what I'm doing right now!

For me, I'm not the writer with notecards plotted out in perfect order before I ever enter any words on the page. Like Anne, my projects usually begin with a character or two and then a scene that tells me about them. This usually involves lengthy discussions with my critique partners, talking about my imaginary people and answering questions about them that would make the muggles scratch their heads if they only knew what we were doing.

Sometimes I pick actors that resemble my characters at that point. They're never exact replicas to the ones I see in my head -- and I think that order is important. They're more the actors I'd pick to play them. It doesn't always work out that way, but this time it did! These names are "placeholders" and subject to change, but aren't they cute? :) 

Sometimes I write the scene that's speaking to me so I can learn more about my characters. In my last three books, it's been somewhere around the black moment that comes to me first. But in this one, it was the meet-cute. (I won't give away all of my secrets :)

My next strategy is to learn as much about my characters as possible. Sometimes I give them the Myers-Briggs personality tests, a super insightful, interesting, and inspiring resource. I create Pinterest boards with outfits they'd wear, pretty things with which they'd decorate their home, the cars they drive -- things that are important to them and also capture their essence. I figure out their pasts and what might keep them from sleeping at night.

This approach might not work for everyone, but if you're like me and write character-driven stories, here are some things I keep in mind when I'm starting a new project:

With this approach, you have to deeply know and love your characters in order to connect with them and know their mannerisms and how they'd react to the situations you throw at them. You have to know the lies they believe about themselves, the keys to their past that keep them from living in freedom, and how that all connects with their deepest desires. You have to know why they've let things stand in the way of their happiness, and sometimes this unravels as the story unfolds. 

But if you don't love them, empathize with them, and connect with them emotionally from the very beginning, there's unfortunately little chance an agent, editor, or reader will.

If you know your characters, the story will grow organically according to the sparks they ignite. The events in this story will be determined by their deepest dreams, the lies and doubts that have shaped their life decisions and self-esteem, and the way they react to things according to those innate details. If you're writing a romance, their chemistry will ebb and flow according to the way these things make your characters mesh and clash. 

The conflict that keeps readers turning the pages will have rich dimension if you ask yourself the best and worst outcomes for your character in any given plot point and come up with an unpredictable or intriguing way that scenario could happen to them. 

If you know the inner workings of your characters and translate them through a unique premise that highlights their strengths and weaknesses in a compelling way, readers will be invested in the roller coaster of puzzle pieces brought together through your fingertips.

These are all things I'm trying to keep in mind as I start my latest story, learn from my characters, and hope that forcing them to confront their deepest doubts will help readers find freedom from their own along the way. Usually what starts out as that fresh, blank page ends up teaching me those hard, beautiful things first, though. :)

How do you begin a new story? Is it different each time? Are your projects more character- or plot-driven?

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Laurie Tomlinson is a wife and mom from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who enjoys stories of grace in the beautiful mess. 

She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and received the Genesis Award in 2013 (Contemporary) and 2014 (Romance). 

Her work is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary.

You can connect with Laurie here:

Facebook - AuthorLaurieTomlinson

Twitter - @LaurieTomlinson

Web - www.LaurieTomlinson.com

Strategic Daydreaming in 3 Easy Steps

Pepper here, and over the past month, my writing world has gotten a lot busier due to one simple word: Deadlines. Not that I didn’t place deadlines on myself before (and Angie recently had a post about some of the pitfalls in having deadlines if we’re not careful), but with three book contracts under way, the word “deadline” has gotten a lot scarier.

Like many of you, my life doesn’t just revolve around writing. There are lots of other responsibilities that give those deadlines a bigger intimidation-factor than they might have otherwise.  Because life is crazy for most of us, writing time his extremely valuable. How do we make it fit in the middle of work, kids, school, laundry, dinner, and all the other things that go along with living? I put up a general schedule of my week – which probably looks a lot like some of your schedules. FULL!!

One way I nick out time is through strategic daydreaming. (I had to post this pic of my daydreaming 12 (almost 13) year old daughter. She was thinking about her fictional crush J

I have driving time in my day between therapy sessions, where I’m going from one school to the next. I also wait in carpool line, fast food lines, grocery lines, etc. So with the time I’m given, I try to squeeze out writing moments. Sometimes I spend those free moments praying, but there are other times when I use it for strategic daydreaming.

What is strategic daydreaming?

It’s planning time to daydream for the purpose of story development.

Here are three ways to have strategic daydreaming:

A Novel Idea app

1.       Planned Daydreaming

 

Of course daydreaming can happen spontaneously, but when I make sure to plan it into one of my driving times or during carpool line, I’m more likely to get more done. For example, for the first two driving times, I might daydream about the YA book I’m working on and then for the next two I’ll switch to my Contemporary Romance. During this time I might work through an upcoming scene, strengthen a character arc, or brainstorm a new idea. I usually go into the ‘time’ with a general plan. If I’m scene daydreaming, then I might dream up a great episode of character banter that I’ll want to remember, so I might use one of my favorite apps called A Novel Idea. I can record my voice into text and have the info for later (which I’ll discuss a little more in Productive Daydreaming below)

 

2.       Primed Daydreaming

When I’ve planned what I want to daydream about, I’ll prime the time with something that inspires me to think of that story. For me, it’s music. I usually have a CD or playlist I’ve made of various music to inspire thoughts of that particular story. Sometimes I’ll bring along a binder with pics of the characters or setting to help. It makes the daydreaming more focused for me.

3.       Productive Daydreaming

 

If I’ve planned and primed well, then my time is usually more productive. I’ll either have the good beginnings of a scene I’ve recorded into A Novel Idea or written down a few notes on character. For example, I had to take my oldest son to the dentist on Friday. I sat in the waiting room for an hour and wrote the first part of a chapter in shorthand – but I’d planned and primed the time by making a binder of characters, history, and setting the night before which helped me ‘get in the mood’ of writing this scene.

By the way, A Novel Idea is a helpful app if you have more than one story going on at the same time. Right now I have four in some form of writing, edits, or brainstorming (although there are a lot more listed on my app as you can see :-)– so being able to save information to that particularly story is helpful.

Sure, daydreaming might not always work out, but it’s been a good time saver for me that easily fit into my packed schedule. It preps me for when I do have a little time to sit down and write – and I desperately needs to me prepared for those moments!

What about you? What are some timesavers you have in place?

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Pepper Basham writes romance peppered with grace and humor. She’s a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mom of five, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate. She writes a variety of genres, but enjoys sprinkling her native culture of Appalachia in them all.  She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC where she works with kids with special needs, searches for unique hats, and plots new ways to annoy her wonderful friends at her writing blog, The Writer’s Alley. She is represented by Julie Gwinn and is debuting her first novel in Spring 2015.

 

 

Uniquely You

This past week, my Zumba teacher was driving home from class when a drunk driver swerved into her lane and almost hit her head-on. By the grace of God, he swerved back and she was fine, but with even a second of difference in time, it could've been a very different story.

I began to think after hearing this how devastated I would've been if something would've happened to her. I haven't been taking her class long, but she's incredibly motivating, an inspiration, and a phenomenal teacher. I've been to a lot of other Zumba classes, but none like hers. If she'd been hurt and unable to teach, it wouldn't have meant one less class to attend. It probably would've meant no Zumba for me. Because she's that good. That unique.

Photo by nuttakit at freedigitalphotos.net

And in that moment, I realized. This is what we are all called to be.

Uniquely God's.

So often, we in the writing community get preoccupied with milestones. We measure success by whether we have an agent, a cool endorsement, a publishing house. We learn the "red flags" that publishers may not like and remove them from our work for fear it might send our manuscript flying into the slush pile. After a while, we may even start to write according to what we think the

But success isn't in any of those things. The real heart of the calling to be a writer isn't in any of those things either.

The real focus for our writing should be in discovering who we are in God.

See, we are all unique, like different colors in a prism. I am not Pepper Basham or Amy Simpson, nor are they me. If I go around trying to be just like Francine Rivers, my writing is going to be a failure. Why? Because it's not my ministry. It's not my heart.

This is the real problem with playing the comparison game and having thoughts like, "if only I could write descriptions like _________" or "if only I could write comedy like ____________." You are not called to be anyone but yourself. And once we get a hold of that, it's liberating. There is great freedom in developing your own writing style!

Because at the end of the day, the world doesn't need another book any more than it needs another exercise class. But there is a reader out there who needs to hear your particular story (and maybe that reader is even yourself). You are the only person God has equipped for that task, so if you don't do it, no one will. What a great motivation to get writing!

Let's hear from you! Have you ever read a book by an author whose unique writing style came through in their prose? How do you see your own writing style as unique?

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Ashley Clark writes romance with southern grace. She's dreamed of being a writer ever since the thumbprint-cookie-days of library story hour. Ashley has an M.A. in English and enjoys teaching literature courses at her local university. She's an active member of ACFW and runs their newcomer's loop. When she's not writing, Ashley's usually busy rescuing stray animals and finding charming new towns. You can find Ashley on her personal blog, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. She is represented by Karen Solem.

How to Grow your Blog Platform: Essentials for your success

Note: This is Part Three in my series on growing your blog platform. You can catch up here on Part One: How to Grow Your blog platform and Part Two: Guerilla Facebook marketing tips.

You're setting up for a big concert, and your task is to erect the platform. You're impatient to get this show happening, so you get straight to work, stacking up bricks and building debris in random piles to create the supports. Some of your piles are lopsided, so you shore them up with a few old planks of wood you found lying around. A bit of gaff tape wound around the teetering supports, and your work is done. The skirt will cover all the ugly bits anyway, so who cares - right?

It seems ludicrous, doesn't it? And yet... when it comes to your blogging presence, have you ever been an impatient platform-builder? It's human nature to want the big pay-off for very little effort. We're too impatient to build a proper foundation, and then wonder why others seem to have more success than us.

Today, we're getting back to the basics of platform building. These are the essential tools you'll need to set your blog up for success and begin building a following.

Set your blog up for success

1. Create an opt-in incentive.
From day one, you should have a free product on offer when someone subscribes to your blog. Without an "email magnet" such as this, your blog is like a leaky boat - the traffic comes, and the traffic goes. Your product should be tailored to meet the felt need of your target demographic. It could be a resource list, a cheat sheet, a free printable, an e-book, a special report, or any number of other products. After a year of blogging, I'd amassed just 150 email subscribers. I offered a book to my followers and gained 1000 new subscribers in the space of three days. Incentives work!

2. Create a landing page.
This is the page on your blog that showcases your opt-in incentive. You can see mine here. You'll see why you need one soon.

3. Own your list.
Don't rely on Feedburner - your email list is your most valuable asset as a blogger, and you need to own it in case you ever need to migrate. Rumours have been floating around for a couple of years now that Google is going to shut down Feedburner altogether. I don't know about you, but I don't want my number one asset at the mercy of the capricious Google gods. I recommend Mailchimp, which is free until you reach 2000 subscribers. With this program you can set up an RSS feed to email campaign, so your blog posts will be delivered automatically to your followers. Once you have a solid list, your need to "hustle" in order to promote your blog will markedly decrease!

So you have the ground work in place... now how do you get the subscribers?

Get your name out there

1. Comment on blogs.
Find blogs that speak to your demographic and become a part of the community. When you comment regularly and contribute something valuable to the conversation, bloggers get to know who you are, and so do other readers. Quick tips:

• If the comment form includes a place to add your blog link, link back to your opt-in incentive landing page, rather than your home page.
• Create a system for commenting. You could bookmark a list of all the blogs you wish to hit in priority order, or try using a blog reader such as Bloglovin' or Feedly. Consistency is key.
• Comment on both big and small blogs. It could take a long time for a "big" blogger who gets lots of comments to notice your presence, but the traffic payoff could potentially be bigger. It's also worthwhile to connect with smaller bloggers and those at around your level. They'll appreciate the comments, and networking can lead to genuine friendships as well as opportunities to help each other grow.

2. Post in subject-specific forums.
I started out frequenting the online forum of a popular blog, and to this day have followers who "found" me there and still loyally read my blog. Once again, the golden rule is to contribute something worthwhile, and don't be a "me monster." Take the time to interact with and promote others, too.

3. Guest post.
It's the number one way to increase your exposure online. You're essentially leveraging your online presence by tapping into someone else's hard-earned audience. Find blogs that target your ideal demographic, and become an active commenter first. Once you've established yourself as a community member of substance, write a killer query offering to guest post on a topic of value, and follow through with a post that delivers the goods. Lastly, in the bio of your published piece, you guessed it - link back to your landing page.

4. Become a contributor.
The longer you network in blogging communities, the more opportunities will come across your path. Bloggers will sometimes put out an open call for new contributors (that's how I landed my first contributor spot for my DIY blog), or you could try pitching yourself as a possible contributor to a blog you've regularly interacted with or guest-posted for in the past.

5. Join up with linky parties.
I have a bookmarked folder of link parties for every day of the week. If I publish a post on a Monday, I jump into Monday's folder and link up at all the parties that go live that day. Link parties are a big thing for DIY and home bloggers such as myself, and can lead to special features and lots of click-back traffic. Whatever field you write in, there are likely linky parties relevant to you. If you can't find any, why not join forces with a group of like-minded bloggers and start your own? InLinkz is a great tool for this.


The task of building your blog platform can sometimes feel like filling a swimming pool with a drinking cup. For the longest time, it's going to seem like you're not getting anywhere at all. Just keep at it. Those drops of water all add up, as long as you stick to your strategy and don't give up.

Let's chat: Which of these ideas do you already use? How do you think you could you do them better? Are any of these strategies new to you?

Find the rest of the series here:

How to Grow your Blog Platform
Guerilla Facebook Marketing
Supercharge your Stats

Karen Schravemade lives in Australia, where she mothers by day and transforms into a fearless blogger by night. Her popular creative home-making blog, A house full of sunshine, reaches over 150,000 readers a month. She's a Genesis finalist for women's fiction and is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such. Find her on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Pinterest.

Hope for Faith-filled Fiction's 2015 Forecast

At the end of each year, Library Journal publishes a Christian fiction preview for the upcoming months. Writing this update is something I enjoy as I get to hear from a variety of editors, publicists, agents, and other industry professionals and hear about upcoming releases. I love seeing the covers, too, so it is a labor of love! Here's a preview for next year.

Though I haven't written fiction for the last year or so, I love being immersed in books and it is exciting to see all the directions Christian fiction is going even at a time that many find discouraging. It is true that the number of acquisitions is getting smaller, houses are closing down, all things that can be depressing. But there's a lot to be hopeful for in the direction of Christian fiction.

1) Blurring of the mainstream/Christian lines can bring new opportunities for acquisition and marketing.

No secret that the Big Six becoming the Big Five and several Christian houses either closing or losing their fiction lines have made publishing news in the past few years. The good side of this is...new opportunities with mainstream houses.

This year I was thrilled to receive lists (albeit smaller ones) from publishers in the ABA world. For instance, Susan Meissner, winner of multiple awards in the CBA realm is publishing Secrets of a Charmed World with Penguin. Ted Dekker's books have long flitted between both markets showing suspense fans will clamor for a book with supernatural elements. 

Stacie Henrie is a newer author whose World War I novels Hope Rising and Hope Remembered release from Grand Central's Forever imprint. Henrie's novels are marketed to romance readers who read on both sides of the house with their inspirational messages and clean content.

Takeaway: Interest in hope-filled stories continues to be strong even at mainstream houses.

2) Small may be the new "big" when it comes to publishing.

Secant and Rosebud are two smaller publishers that I contacted. Rosebud was developed by several traditionally published authors with Lacy Williams as the managing editor. They use a print-on-demand model. Secant is an indie publisher based in the Southeast. Smaller size doesn't always mean limited options. Little houses might be willing to go places the larger houses won't and could provide a middle ground between self-publishing and the Big Five.

Takeaway: Don't overlook the idea of starting out small.

3) Christian media is improving and may provide new opportunities.

Christian movies were once thought of as a bit of a joke, but with newer movies like The Vow and Nicholas Cage's version of Left Behind the image is beginning to change. (I know Christian movies still have a long way to go, but at least this genre is growing). 

Chris Fabry's The Song and Rene Gutteridge's Old Fashioned are both examples of book/movie combinations that will be released this winter. Even media versions that don't fully follow the biblical texts, think Noah and Exodus are bringing new popularity to Christian-themed fiction. For instance, The Shadow of the Mountain: Exodus by Cliff Graham is poised to meet the interests of the audience of the upcoming film.

Takeaway: Consider how Christian media can provide a possible audience for your novel as you market to possible publishers.

4) Christian fiction is getting less and less shy about tackling the tough subjects.

Christian fiction has long left the realm of mere bonnet fiction, but is becoming more and more bold with the years. News events, whether abuse in the clergy, domestic violence or suicide are being tackled in Christian fiction. Mercy's Rain by Cindy Sproles tackles misconduct in the clergy and in the wake of Robin William's shocking death The Boy Who Loved Rain releases this upcoming winter.

It is encouraging to see Christians become more engaging in the culture with a realization that our children will learn about these topics either from us or from the world. Rather than a complete sheltering, Christian fiction is often providing a faith-filled context from which to view the world.

Takeaway: The very issue God is speaking to your heart just may be the story you need to write.

5) Its all still about a love of story.

In spite of the challenges of marketing and social media, its still all about story.  Bottom line a good story with a uniqueness to it and intense plot twists can overcome challenges in this brave new world of publishing. 

Takeaway: Tell YOUR story.

Comments: I'd be curious to hear what books you are excited about that will be releasing in 2015 and why.

The Pitfalls of a Self-Imposed Deadline

on FreeDigitalPhotos by Stuart Miles

My family and I drove from Iowa to North Carolina back to Iowa again in a week...so I decided to post an oldie, but one that still applies to me at this very moment! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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From the time we enter a classroom at the early age of five, we begin to set our feet toward goals...goals to learn the alphabet and sightwords, goals to climb across the monkeybars and jump off swings.

As we grow, we make goals for good grades and fitness tests, goals to get the lead in the play or make the team. Some of us made the goal to be an author way way way before we could even read a full-length novel...Goals, goals, goals.

While many of us were given goals by our teachers, our parents, our advisors, as we trek along in the great wide world on our own—without a publishing contract, perhaps without an agent-- we are sole initiators of our goals. During this process, we all have certainly stumbled upon a type of goal that can motivate us or trip us up, or both:

The self-imposed deadline.

Even the mention of it makes me shudder.

Not that it's bad.

No. It's what gives us the edge most of the time. It's the symptom of an inner drive to make ourselves competitive and productive. A self-imposed deadline is usually a stepping stone to reaching that next level on our journey.

It's the polished entry for a contest... x number of days before to be sure you have it just right.

It's the tweaked proposal ready for your agent's eyes when you are ready to reveal your next idea.

It's that date to finish that final sentence of a manuscript you just know will get you a contract.

It's the date YOU'VE committed to in your heart, without the suggestion from anyone else, without the expectation of anyone else. It's YOUR timeline for YOUR journey, crafted on YOUR very own.

on FreeDigitalPhotos by photo stock

So why does it make me shudder? Why? When self-motivation is often key to keep going forward on this rigorous writing journey?

Because, I have landed heart first in the pitfalls of self-imposed deadlines, and know that they are a very tricky and sensitive type of goal-setting. 

• First, there is a chance that a deadline like this might rush you by key points in the writing process. 
• Second, you risk the chance of unreasonable expectations on those who play on the receiving end of your met goal.

Pitfall #1:  Missed Opportunities- When I had a project in college, I would brainstorm quickly and focus in on the first idea that came to mind. I took it and ran. I would get so deep in the project with that focus on my original idea, that I didn't take the time to entertain other options. If I did come up with something else, I was usually too far into the project and too close to the actual deadline to change anything. I'd look around at my classmates projects and remember that even thought they were slow to start, their final products were strong ideas with well-thought out execution...sometimes mine lacked those things.

As a writer, I often catch myself zoning into a self-imposed deadline, trucking along on a story, and feeling the pressure of the deadline pushing me past any idea that might hold me back from my goal a few days, weeks, or even months. When we force ourselves to stick to a self-imposed deadline, we can forget the fluidity of such a goal, and miss the maturing process of newborn ideas and complex building blocks that might slow us down, but give us a more refined (and desirable) product in the end.

Pitfall #2:  Expectations of the Un-expecting- If I finished a project before the deadline, I could hardly expect my professors to set aside time to grade it and critique it ahead of the rest of the class. It just doesn't work that way. Just because I might have reached my goal, doesn't mean that everyone affected by it are waiting on the edge of their seats to pat me on the back.

This is something that can drive me absolutely batty in the writing world. You mean, I spent all this time working on this manuscript or proposal, and have urged my crit partner to abide by my deadline (and she is so great at getting it back to me), and I sent it to my agent (I so appreciate her responsiveness as she is very quick in sending it on when it's ready)...but the receivers aren't anxious to meet me at my next self-imposed goal of a contract by such and such date? WHAT??? 

Crickets...a rejection here and there...and more crickets.

But I wanna, but I said, but I set a...hmph.

on FreeDigitalPhotos by Clare Bloomfield

The risk of weighting these self-imposed deadlines so heavily, is that we expect others to step in line with them and play the game OUR way. And more often than not, we will be sorely disappointed. We are placing undue expectations on people and situations we cannot control.

Self-imposed deadlines drive us, but they can also drive us CRAZY if we let them become the steadfast rule. Remember, a self-imposed deadline should be fluid and adjusted according to your creative process and life circumstance. And always remember, that a self-imposed deadline is only imposed by you, so don't expect everyone else to mark their calendars too!

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Angie Dicken is a full-time mom and lives in the Midwest with her Texas Aggie sweetheart. An ACFW member since 2010, she has written five Historical Romance novels, has a Historical underway, and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of The Steve Laube Agency. Angie also spends her time designing one-sheets, selling Jamberry Nail Wraps, and drinking good coffee with great friends. Check out her author page at www.facebook.com/dicken.angie and her personal blog at angiedicken.blogspot.com