Deadlines are a double-edged sword. I'm not immune to them, but I try to distance myself from them. They seem to deter people from writing until the last moment.
I've spoken to writers who have the tendency to wait until the deadline is close, and then write furiously.
I don't like to do that. I like to write all the time. I'm disciplining myself to do that. I think it's counter-productive to use a deadline as the impetus to write.
Then again, as of late I haven't the energy to even sit down and begin. Life is extremely busy and demands are both physical, mental and emotional.
Writing is as demanding as life. It can drain you in fifteen minutes. But if you push yourself past that, the joy of a finished chapter, or a particularly difficult scene, are beyond measure.
Now - to get this last chapter into the old computer so I can get onto the next one. Or is that setting a deadline? Hm. Heck with the getting it into the computer - Forge onward. To the next chapter, she cries, sword drawn and raised!
Life is good.
It used to be that if I set a deadline, it was almost as if I missed it to spite myself. Very weird. Deadlines became unimportant when my priority was writing. Deadlines were met by the virtue of the fact that I was consistently writing.
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