I have until August 29th to finish my manuscript. A little stressed, you ask? Yes. Definitely. It is not that I can't do it, for I know that I can. But this deadline has a way of placing just enough pressure ot keep me on my toes, and is close enough that I have begun to watch the days tick by. In other words, my upcoming deadline makes every day count.
As I thought about this post, I wondered where this word came from. Sure, I get the connotation of a hard and fast line that cannot be moved, because it is "dead", but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that the word suggest that if you cross this 'line', than perhaps you die. So, I did a little research as to the origin and came up with this answer: During the Civil War, a deadline referred to a line around an army barracks that no prisoner could cross. If they crossed the line, then they would be shot. A deadline thus wasn't originally about crossing it, but rather not crossing.
Luckily for us writers, deadlines no longer instill a fear of certain death. But while I won't be dying once I cross the line (and hopefully won't die if I don't), deadlines provide a real and tangible cutoff for the time a work needs to be completed. For me, this deadline for completing my novel has become real, and fast approaching. My work is due to my awesome new editor on September 1st, and since I am going out of the country on the 29th, my cutoff has been bumped up a few days. But regardless of whether my deadline is the 29th or the 1st, a deadline creates a sense of urgency that cannot be denied.
Deadlines can be a great way to muster up some motivation. Some people work best under pressure, and some might just need that extra kick to get started. But especially in terms of self-imposed deadlines, I think it is best to give yourself a little bit of wiggle room, and keep the reality of your abilities within your reach. Some people can comfortably pump out two thousand words per day, while others may feel more comfortable at five hundred. Some people revise as they go; others whip out a first draft and never look back until the end. Some people write every day of the week, while some write only three times per week. We all have different patterns. We all have different creative processes. So keeping this in mind as you plan for a deadline — or set one for yourself — is an important part of helping you successfully achieve your goal.
Just as it is important to maintain an awareness of your process when thinking about deadlines, it is equally important to realize that deadlines go a long way in helping to stretch us as writers. Deadlines provide a way to push us to do more than we might have otherwise thought possible, moving us beyond our common word counts or the time it takes us to revise. There is a fine line between being realistic and underestimating ourselves. When faced with a certain cutoff, we often realize we can do more than we ever thought. And this is something we should all embrace.
So as my deadline approaches, I am trying to be both realistic and aim high. I am embracing the pressure and embracing the stretch. All there is to do now is move forward toward the goal, without stopping and without getting hung up on the fear of incompletion. I hope you do the same, too. Because no matter how hard it feels, I know you can do it. And in the end, if you don't, you will just end up with a whole lot of great work that you didn't have before!
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