Deadlines

I was reading an Amazon thread by ABNA authors today on the subject of deadlines. The question was, Do you have self-imposed deadlines on your writing? As is generally the case, the answers varied. But as for me, no. I generally don't self-impose a deadline on my fiction.

I don't like to be held to a deadline if I don't have to be. I know I lack discipline, that I sometimes don't press myself hard enough. Right now is one of those times. But I think my fiction, the novels in particular, get written in the 'fullness of time.' So why impose something that isn't needed.

I am at a place in "The Death of Art" that is slow, probably boring, and undoubtedly won't make it in later drafts. So I am writing slowly. I have only written about 2,000 words this week. And I'm having a hard time motivating myself to write more or to write faster. But I know the time will come when I will do both. I just have to get past this slow, dry period.

I do impose a deadline when I am near the end, usually when I estimate I am one or two weeks from the end. It's hard to tell because when I finish I am at a point near the end, not at the end. For example, the last words I wrote in the first draft of "A Murderous Dispatch" were on Page 227, not on the last page of the novel, which ended on Page 244. I had already written the final 17 pages.

So it is a little hard to determine when I am about to finish because it isn't at the end.

That having been said, when I impose that ending deadline, I usually end up finishing with only a half hour left. It's an odd thing. I go right up to the end of the deadline but not over it.

So, I know this is a boring posting but it is one of the things on my mind at the moment. I will use deadlines if I need them to focus me on finishing.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading. And get back to writing.