Let me tell you something about deadlines.
Or more specifically, let me tell how I don’t get what I see other writers do with deadlines. Like, I will see people be all, “Oh, yeah, I have a novel due next month. I better get to work on it.” As in, little-to-no work has been done, and now that the deadline approaches, they’re planning on weaponizing their panic and going into FULL POWER MODE, knocking out thousands of words each day and having a finished novel in a couple weeks.
I honestly don’t understand how to do this. Like, my brain recoils at the idea.
For me, deadlines are always a long-range thing. I look at when something is due, and look where I am right now, and ask myself, “What do I need to do to be two months before the deadline?” and start working on that goal. Because I know things will get in the way, I know there will be setbacks, and it’s best to charge in with a plan before even getting to that point.
I mean, people ask me what the “secret” is to my output, and a big part of that is in the planning. I know what the core of the next year and a half looks like, writing-wise, and I plan for that. I don’t think I could do it otherwise.
And that takes discipline, and even then, the schedule slips and things get behind.
SPEAKING OF, I’m working hard on finishing The Shield of the People before its deadline, and The Way of the Shield is coming out in just a few weeks, so I might be pretty scarce here in the coming days.