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Monday, June 18, 2012

The Dreaded Deadline

At this time next week, I'll be back in Canada for my summer vacation!!! I am very excited (you can tell by all the exclamation marks). But before I go home and really relax, I have this small, little thing hanging over my head.

My Deadline.

Well, it's sort of a deadline.  Seeing as it is self-imposed (and those deadlines are always a little too easy to move).

I want to be done.  I started working on my current manuscript (which has no name!) back in February.  It's now been five months, 63,000 words, and more hours than I can count, and I still. am. not. finished.

But I'm close!

In about 10,000 words I will be finished this story.  Then, I get to shove it in a closet (or a far corner of my hard drive) for the rest of summer vacation (while I work on something else).

I needed a push to get it done.  So I gave myself a deadline.  Before I fly out next Sunday morning at 8 am (my local time) I want to be finished this story.  Besides, deadlines are good for us.  I wouldn't get any work would get done without them. Whether it's a long term deadline (finish the novel by June 24) or a daily deadline (write 1,000 words a day)

Not to mention, when you meet a deadline there's always that sense of accomplishment.  That feeling that you have done something.  It's even better when you meet a self-imposed one.  Because then you've just accomplished a personal goal.  And there's nothing more awesome than that.

My deadline has resulted in me looking a bit like this:



But I'm happy with my progress.  I've typed at least 1,500 words everyday for the last four days.  It's put a good dent in my manuscript and I can feel myself inching closer to the finale.

Soon enough I will look like this:


And I cannot wait to have that feeling!

2 comments:

  1. Good luck meeting your deadline! :) I love that sense of accomplishment when your first draft is DONE.

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  2. Good luck on finishing! & I agree, deadlines are a great way to motivate yourself to actually finish something. Even though unfortunately I am good with moving the... Also wanted to come by and say thank you for all the great comments!

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