Like your hat. Like your link. Like your question at the end.

Wanda B.

My uncle was a fine-art watercolorist who had regional success in his Third Act. I loved what he said about selling his paintings, “When I finish a piece, it has already taught me all I’m going to learn from it. I might as well make money on it then.”

I feel that way about everything I ever had in print, it taught me all it could and I let it go.

But…what if I actually finish a novel? Will it be the same?

The thing about a deadline is, it forces you to choose A over B…there are so many creative avenues to explore, and the beginning of a project is always more fun than the end, so why not just keep beginning things, and never finishing? So a deadline forces the issue – the answer is always: Work on A. Now is not the time to take on mural painting, ballroom dancing, furniture refinishing, etc. If you want to throw some gladiola bulbs in the ground, okay. But otherwise: A, A, A. Now I’m itching to reference Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter…unintentional prototype of the American female novelist. With the substitution of a single word, we get:

“But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne here, in New England, than in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her novel.”

Wanda B. (maybe I should make that Wanda A.)

After that initial panic, I actually found the deadline helped immensely with the editing. I knew I had to let it go at some point so it actually gave me license to stop tinkering for tinkering’s sake and sign the damn thing off. Being a maladaptive perfectionist it was actually like having a burden lifted to be able to say “I definitely HAVE to stop now”.

Just fingers crossed I didn’t do one ‘polish’ too many.

Hillsy

Gulp.

“Am I really that bad?” I asked.

“You’re my second worst client. Ever.”

Double gulp.

I guess you don’t earn the nickname, “Last-minute-Laurie” without good reason.

Anyhoo, I’ve been working my butt off ever since trying to make up time and deliver on schedule. Still not there yet…but I’m closer and gaining ground. Next year I definitely want to be no lower than third to last. Maybe even fourth to last. Maybe I’ll even get one out of the three manuscripts due to my editor ON TIME! She’ll keel over in a dead faint of course. I’ll blame Jim.

I previously published a nonfiction book. It took me forever to write the first several chapters and the proposal because I didn’t have an external deadline. The proposal was accepted within two weeks, and suddenly I had a REAL deadline. I wrote the rest of the book within a matter of weeks, and I hit every subsequent deadline on the nose. Loved it, and had no problem letting the book go.

I’m working on a novel, and I’ve gotten enthusiastic responses from agents and editors at conferences and in contests… but I just can’t make much progress. I don’t have a real deadline, and so it gets knocked down in priority. If I can ever get this book finished and sold, I’ll be set, because I’ll have someone else setting the deadlines.