I am just finishing my first draft of my first book. I need to get it done before the snow melts because I will not have time for writing once the winter is finished. Overnight temperatures will be below zero for the next week, but after that, spring may well spring.
I want the first draft to be in a good-enough state that I can give it to my grandmother to read. She is a sharp-minded ninety three year old, but not in great health.
I wondered what deadlines other people use to stimulate their writing...
To do my novel, Jacob Jones I gave myself six months, that ends today of all days.. (259 pages)
Apart from a tweak or two I ended up finishing two weeks ago so I have started the first chapter of the second book. I am a very slow writer. My wife says I have fingers like a JCB hitting a keyboard, my son says they look like a packet of sausages having a epileptic fit when I type.
I never thought of working to a deadline for a profit - but the more I think about it the more I think it could be a really good idea. I used to live in a place where once the snow arrived that was it 'till it melted. Unfortunately I didn't see the benefit of using it as a deadline - more fool me!
Like Jonathan I am not particularly good with deadlines but this year I want to enter a particular comp. and while it is due at the end of May I will be away for much of May so I have set myself the end of Apr as my deadline. My figuring is that I can go away and forget about it for 3 weeks and then when I come back I will be able to read it with fresh eyes, do the tweaks that I want and send it in, without the mad dash to the end that I usually have.
Maybe I should plan more holidays and use them as deadlines.
I am the world's worst with writing deadlines - whatever target I set myself I miss :(
I'm pretty good with other people's deadlines, though, so maybe I should get someone to pay me to finish by a certain date.
Any takers? ;)