Week 33 - The Deadline Redemption

As predicted, this week has been a flurry of late nights, far too much caffeine, and many bleary eyed mornings (apologies to the woman whom I almost sent flying when my sleep-walking self failed to notice her as she emerged from M&S at 8.15am carrying a week’s shopping.)

What is it about deadlines? It’s not as if I don’t face them on a daily basis; so why is it I always get there with only seconds to spare?

The term "deadline" apparently comes from the line around the edge of prisons which if the inmates passed, they would be shot. Sound like some editors I have known.

I would recommend Donald Murray’s Writing to Deadline (available from Amazon) for anyone struggling to hit those all important dates/times. While predominately aimed at journalists, most of the book applies to all kinds of writing. After all, fiction writers may not have daily - or hourly - deadlines, but they have deadlines all the same.

I met my deadline - just - but ended the week with no time to spare as well as feeling as if I haven’t slept in days (possibly because I haven’t slept in days).

My reward is a full week off. The novel is going away and I am going to try not to think about it. Then I have 10 weeks to polish the second draft - getting to the meat of the thing and attempting to re-write it so that it starts to resemble something a publisher may actually want to buy.

Of course, as my 52 weeks begin to run out, the deadlines will loom larger and panic will begin to set in (again). Being positive, it’s possible that I might finish the next section ahead of deadline. But then again, it’s possible I may open the batting for Yorkshire this summer. I have a strange feeling I needn't wash my cricket whites just yet.

There is a secret about deadlines that many journalists and writers tend not to air, because it is traditionally an area we moan about (and let’s face it, we like a moan). It is this: deadlines are actually fun. Without them, I for one, would probably never complete a single piece of work. There is a rush about writing to deadline. It’s exciting, it’s thrilling and it works.

Any old fool can jump off a cliff with a bungee rope tied to their ankle, but if you want a real adrenaline rush, write to a deadline. There’s nothing like it to get the creative juices pumping and even more importantly, to get the job done. We need deadlines and it never fails to amaze me how smoothly the words flow when you have an editor jumping up and down, demanding the work within the next ten minutes...even if your editor is you. It’s what separates us from people who put down their work - finished or not - at the end of the day and walk away. Stress-free perhaps, but where’s the fun in that?

It all reminds me of an old Peanuts strip. It’s the last day of the long summer vacation and Charlie Brown is desperately trying to find someone - anyone - who has not started the book they were given to read over the summer. Of course, he’s the only one. Lucy tells him that she read the book in the first week so that she would have the rest of the summer free without the task hanging over her. Charlie Brown fumes and slopes off to a late night session with Gulliver’s Travels.

Lucy, I often think, is the kind of person who will go on to a successful career in something respectable. Charlie Brown, on the other hand, will probably end up a writer.