When faced with a deadline in life, love or work what is your natural response?
Do you face up to it ready for a fight or do you shy away and go into flight mode?
After self-imposing a deadline on myself recently it has helped me to learn what kind of writer I am.
July 1 has arrived and for all in the southern hemisphere will be over in a couple of short hours. This was my deadline. The manuscript I wrote was supposed to have been placed safely into a depository we, in Australia, call a post box. It hasn’t left the building.
I struck a couple of hurdles today. Procrastination and Dissatisfaction.
While I believe I can deal with dissatisfaction to an extent, I cannot deal with procrastination.
There was a part of my story that I had been unhappy with from its conception. Until today I had no ideas that were even adequate.
My deadline it seems had worked its magic and forced me to think. Think hard and solve the issue.
So dissatisfaction has been taken care of but I have that lingering sense that procrastination had me putting off what could have been achieved last week and enabled me to post it TODAY.
My little four page picture book manuscript will leave my hands tomorrow but I am left with that feeling that procrastination will visit again and I need to be more prepared to deal with it. Putting kids and the family, the paid variety of work, blogging and feeding the goldfish first may need to change.
And just as an aside who decided that procrastinate should have the prefix pro? Who supports or is in favour of crastination? I love words and language but really? I am tempted to submit to Oxford that procrastination be changed to anticrastination.
Am I being too hard on myself missing my deadline by one day? Please share any tips you have for power-punching deadlines and assisting with anticrastination.
I need all the help I can get.
And can someone please make sure the goldfish are fed.
Image from: here.
Free Little Words 
Be proud that you are sending your finished product out for review and forgive yourself the extra day. Today is a big step and should be celebrated!
This. So much this. Keep up the hard work and celebrate! 🙂
Thanks Bradley.
On to story number 2….
I am somewhat proud but it feels a little bit like taking my first steps. I’m not sure if I’m going to get far (at least the first time).
Thank you for your kind words. I might raise a glass tonight in celebration.
Nope, you did it and that is what matters. Luckily the world didn’t end because you posted later than you had planned to and all is well. )
If the world ended based on writers not meeting deadlines we’d be in a whole heap of trouble.
I can have a tendency to be a bit OCD when it comes to honouring my word.
Congratulations! In spite of the “procrastination,” you should feel pretty good about what you’ve accomplished. And now, there’s that next book . . . .
Yay for me. I think that next book will be so very much harder than the first. Is that what you’ve found?
It’s been a mixed bag. Some are easier than others. Same with the rewrites.
Put it this way: you could have met your deadline. But by missing it, you have actually improved your chances of getting a positive response. You actually did yourself a favour 🙂
Thanks Imi. I really didn’t look at it that way. The perfectionist in me just thought I was picking holes in it just to avoid the unavoidable.
anticrastination. Brilliant. It’s definitely not a pro. (Though I’m a pro at it 😉 )
Me too. I’m in need of some professional help to be not-so-good at it.
One day? You’ve done we’ll – in the scheme of juggling all those roles I think you should high five yourself!
Yeah, I know I sound like a drama queen. But truthfully it’s just the perfectionist talking.
I do know that my story will never be perfect because there will always be things about it that I’d want to change even if/when it is in print. I am sure this is a curse of writers everywhere.
High fiving myself right now even though it feels rather awkward.
Can definitely relate to that perfectionist thing. Don’t let it get in the way of celebrating your successes!
In teaching, writing and parenting I guess you learn to reflect on what you do in order to improve it next time and perhaps this is all you are doing.
Who decided that procrastination should have the prefix, pro? LOVE it. Great post!
Thanks, Michaela. There are probably lots of pro words that could be changed to anti, come to think of it.
It’s hard to let go of your words sometimes. It’s like the first time you send your child out for a bike ride on their own….you know they know the rules and will be ok, but you still worry if you tightened their helmet enough.
You are so right, Dina. I haven’t even tackled the bike ride part yet. Just the thought of them riding off on their own scares the bejeebers out of me.
I did hesitate at the post box tonight. The rest of today’s tale I will relive in my next post.
To echo words already said, be proud of what you have accomplished. For the many hours that you have put into your lil’ baby it’s not worth sending when you’re not completely happy. Take a breath now and wait for that positive response that so many of us believe you will get.♡
For the many hours you have had an absent wife, her head stuck in the land of fiction.
Breath? Is that what I’m forgetting.
You have an ulterior motive for me being published that the others do not.
😉
Ahhh – Every comment made I would like to ditto 1000 x’s over. I can understand your wanting to meet a deadline – self imposed, especially – but maybe it took this last bit of ‘hesitation’ to get that little idea to make the change you felt your story required? A little bit of fate maybe?? Regardless of anything – you accomplished something big. It’s your first – and will not be your last. I cannot wait to read the finished product;)
xxxx
I am a big believer in fate and know whatever will be, will be, with this story with this publisher. There is nothing else left in my power. I have options for posting to different publishers if I am ‘rejected’. We have to start somewhere and here and now is as good anywhere or anytime.
You are too kind for the words I possess. Your care package is a work in progress. 🙂
I think deadlines can be a good thing, but definitely don’t beat yourself up. But even publishers allow you a grace period. Plus, one day is not bad at all. This will make you feel better: I had a July 30th deadline (requested by the publisher) and I finally got the darn thing to them in November! The took it and published it!! I was terrible…I’ve never been that late for anything. Between work and health issues and yes “anticrastination” it kept falling through the cracks. I’m writing another set of articles for the same publisher with another deadline of July 30th – I plan on being on time this time! lol
I hope all the planets align, luck is in your favour and all the other things that can help you reach your deadline on time will assist you and not create obstacles.
What is it that you’re working on now? I have never published a thing and am in awe of all writers out there that have.
Like days, deadlines come and go. Be flexible, Dear! Writing will always be there. I truly get your frustration as I have many manuscripts on the brink of submission status. I am always happy, but exhausted when you throw in the other hats we women wear. And sometimes? When I do have a moment? I can think of none other than sitting by a quiet window with a cup of tea and the sound of leaves dancing in the wind. I have watched many of my deadlines come and go. And when they do, I just make another one;)