Thursday, March 26, 2009

Deadlines and Life

I have an April 1 deadline looming. It’s for an upcoming Silhouette Nocturne, a sequel to my January release ALPHA WOLF, and involves one of the Alpha Force shapeshifter characters introduced in that story. Great fun to write!

I’ve finished a viable first draft and got some good comments from writing friends who read it. It’s getting there...

At least these days editors want manuscripts to be e-mailed rather than snail-mailed. That means I have until nearly the last minute to get it to New York.

Which is a good thing, since I spent last weekend celebrating birthdays. I also have some other time-consuming things to attend to this week. At least I’ll have this weekend to finish working on the story, and I think it’s close to being ready anyway. But I generally like to use up all the time I’m allotted before sending off a manuscript, just in case something else important occurs to me.

Each new deadline I meet feels like a special accomplishment, whether a hard one or one that I’d no trouble with. I know that some of my fellow Killer Hobbies bloggers have met some especially difficult deadlines lately!

How do you deal with deadlines in your life--whether writing or otherwise?

--Linda

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I feel creative, sometimes I don't. The schedules and deadlines come into play only when I'm not feeling creative; they stir me up enough to do things anyway.

It's rather like studying very very hard the night before the exam.

Linda O. Johnston said...

I agree, Ellen. Sometimes it's hard to sit down at the computer and expect lovely stuff to pour out! And, yes, I remember cramming all too well.
--Linda

Camille Minichino said...

I just sent a ms to NY that's due April 1. I now feel like I'm on vacation, even though there's a long trail of things I let go, staring me in the face.

Without a deadline, however, I think I'd watch Lifetime all day.

Linda O. Johnston said...

Congratulations, Camille! Now, how long do you have before you need to start on the next manuscript with a deadline???
--Linda

Betty Hechtman said...

I FedExed my manuscript Monday, but am now faced with the deadline to get everything together for our taxes. I'm dealing with our coporpation, personal and my writing, along with a needy cat who keeps walking through all my papers.

The accountant wanted it by last Tuesday. I'm hoping to ship it out tomorrow.

It just hours and hours of me with an adding machine.


The good part is that once I finish I can start thinking about my birthday next week. My son is taking me to Disneyland. Yay!

Linda O. Johnston said...

You'll have a lot worth celebrating in addition to your birthday, Betty! And be sure to get a TwoFer for yourself and your son--yours is free on your birthday and it means you can go to both Disneyland and California Adventure within 30 days of one another--although not both on the same day. We've go to head back there for California Adventure soon...
--Linda