photo by Dafne Cholet
Writers need deadlines the way Dr. Frankenstein needs electricity—it takes a dangerous outside force to inject life into our abominable creations. Check out my column at Writer Unboxed, The Hack’s Guide to Setting Deadlines for Yourself.
If your writing career is withering under the tyranny of a peaceful and balanced lifestyle, this column will help you inject some much-needed stress and anxiety into your writing process.
Set an arbitrary deadline. Just give yourself a due date. In his seminal book on writing, On Writing, Stephen King says you should try to finish a book draft in like three months or so (I’m too lazy to look it up, and too temperamental to be corrected, so if I’m wrong, please keep it to yourself). Mark your calendar for three months from today and make that your goal. Will it work? It might, but based on the fact that you’re reading this column right now, I’m betting it won’t. It sounds plausible enough, though, and I’m on a deadline to write this column, so I’m leaving it in.