Missing Deadlines Craziness by Paty Jager

If you had told me four months ago I wouldn't be a raving lunatic about now, I would have laughed and said, "Yeah, right." At that point I had found myself falling farther and farther behind in my writing commitments. I'm a person who is always early for appointments and finishes things ahead of schedule.

Until the last year.

Life interrupted and the schedule I'd made out last fall for this year started to feel like an anchor around my neck because I wasn't getting projects done in the time I'd predicted. I had been asked to join a group of authors who were starting up their own "world" books. It sounded like fun and I came up with characters and helped populate their fictional town/community.

Before I started that book, I found out the book I'd put in a Kindle Worlds project was coming back to me. That was an added revision I hadn't planned on. But a joyful one! I loved this book and after putting it in the Kindle World I was sorry I'd let the rights go. I'd let peer pressure push me into doing the Kindle World. But Now that book, Isaac: Letters of Fate is mine, revised, and out there for everyone to purchase at all ebook venues and in print. 

The more I thought about all the projects ahead of me and how would I get them done on time, I had to step back and decide which were the most important. I decided to back out on the world project. It was the only thing I hadn't "started" writing and my fans wouldn't miss because they didn't know anything about it. Once I backed out of that, I didn't feel so rushed and didn't tighten up when I sat down to write knowing I had to get X amount of words done that day.

Writing became fun again!

And I'm happy to say, I am slowly getting back on track with my deadlines!

Isaac: Letters of Fate released in July and Lottie Mae: Silver Dollar Saloon released in August and the Dangerous Dance will release. I'll have one more Shandra Higheagle book release this year, Honeymoon Cadaver, then January 2019 will start the beginning of another mystery series release. Book one of that has been written and has received good words from the beta readers.
end of September or the first of October the next Shandra Higheagle mystery,

How is your summer going?  Did you get to spend as much time relaxing as you'd like or has it been hectic for you?

 

Time-Suck Black Holes

By Linda Lovely

In my late twenties, I was a senior partner in a public relations/marketing firm and regularly worked 60-plus-hour weeks and spent a fair number of days each month on the road. At the same time, I took night-school MBA courses with all the associated homework. I also played tennis, read books, cooked, cleaned house, socialized.

How? I wonder. Were the days longer? Was I more organized? Did my brain function better?

My mother warned me: “Time changes as you get older. It moves faster. You move slower.”

I’m not sure I believed her. I do now.

I started working out of a home office early in my career. So, when I decided to focus on writing fiction and becoming my only client, there was no shift in the work environment. Same computer, office, telephone, and in-home distractions. Pajamas remain optional work attire.

A key difference is that I’m now subject to self-imposed deadlines, and my admonitions—I must write 2,000 words before I quit for the day—aren’t nearly as effective as the arbitrary deadlines clients foisted on me. I can excuse slipping one day because our blueberry bushes need to be pruned and the weather’s warmed enough that I won’t freeze my fanny. Or I need to check Facebook to see if anyone responded to a post on my author page. Or I should spend more time researching an interesting tidbit that may or may not make it into my manuscript.

This is one reason I remain interested in traditional versus self-publishing. I always meet deadlines when I’ve promised someone else that I will.

Another key difference? My attention is fragmented. Social media—Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, Linked In, and a dozen writer loops—compete for my attention. By the time I glance at all the media I’m signed into, that Internet black hole may have swallowed an hour or more of my day. Worse yet, I might not have even posted on any of the loops. That means the value of social media in terms of marketing my fiction or getting my name out there is pretty much nil.

Another difference seems to be a lessened capacity to say “no.” Could you (fill in the blank) edit/produce a newsletter for our nonprofit, serve as secretary for our organization, bake cookies for an event, judge a contest? I don’t mind—in fact, I enjoy—granting most such requests, but I seem to have lost my ability to say “no, I don’t have the time to do it now, maybe later.” Perhaps it goes back to those deadlines. Since they’re “just” mine, they’re not as important.

One of the suggested themes for this month’s blog was “turns in our lives.” I’m not going to say I’ve made a New Year’s resolution, but I will say I’m going to look at time differently in 2014. It’s a precious commodity and I need to claim more of it for the things I enjoy doing most—and one of them is writing fiction. Time is moving faster these days and I need to grab hold of more of this precious commodity for myself.

So, authors, how do you make sure you meet your self-imposed deadlines?