D is for...Deadlines

Today's post is brought to you by...the letter D!

I have always loved deadlines. Yeah, I know, I'm weird like that.

At school, I was the kind of girl who handed in her work BEFORE the deadline, and then enjoyed the feeling of having nothing to do, while others in the class were up until midnight trying to get it done (or not done in some cases). This continued throughout uni, although I'll admit that I did sometimes leave it to the day before to hand things in, instead of being strangely organised and handing it all in a week before. So yeah, I guess I've always been a fairly organised person (unless it's not work related, then I'm the most disorganised person ever).

It wasn't until I realised this, and began to apply deadlines to my own writing, that I actually began to get anything done. I'm still not very good at self-imposed deadlines, because I know they can be moved (i.e. when I haven't bothered to do the work) - but now I get my friends or The Engineer to make up my deadlines for me. The reason I published Synthetica on the 1st April is because I got the Engineer to choose the publishing date for me - if he hadn't chosen it, it would probably still be languishing on my laptop, nowhere near ready for publication. He's also the one who set me the task of writing the first draft of my novel in three weeks. It was painful at times - there were times when I could've cried because I thought it was never going to end - but I did it.

I think with self-publishing especially, deadlines have a special kind of importance. Because you're working at your own pace, sometimes you have to challenge yourself to get certain tasks done by a particular deadline. When you self-publish, the only one responsible for managing your time correctly is you.

But don't take this to mean that you have to set yourself ridiculous deadlines all the time. Only you can know what kind of pace you're capable or comfortable working at; whether that's writing an entire novel in a week, finally finishing that stubborn chapter you've been working on for months, or even just throwing down some ideas for your next book - it's up to you.

I am definitely a deadline person - some people are, and some people aren't, and that's okay. All you have to figure out is what works best for you and your writing.

So how about you? Do you like setting deadlines while you're writing? Why/why not?

So...did I do it?...

If you've been following my blog over the past few weeks, you might have picked up on the fact that I've been scribbling away trying to write a first draft for my novel by the 19th June...and I know the question you're all wondering now is - did I do it??

And the answer is....no.

I didn't manage to complete my novel, but am I disappointed? Hell, no!

In all my other WIPs, the most I've ever managed to write is around 17,000 words - the word count for my current novel is over 40,000. To me, that's a tremendous achievement. I've never stuck at one project for so long, or remained so excited about a WIP for so long either. I still find myself constantly dreaming up scenes while I'm trying to get to sleep, or while I'm out and about, and I simply have to scribble it down. I keep imagining that moment when I've finished it completely, and how excited I'll be when I can finally share it with the world....

Although ideally I would have liked to have reached around 50,000 words, I'm not going to dwell on the fact that it's a little short of that (ha! If 10,000 words can be called 'short'). All I can do now is keep going and hope that I don't run out of steam - it would be a shame if all this effort went to waste!

So, I'm setting myself a new deadline. Hopefully my writing time won't be interrupted by sudden illnesses (stupid stomach bugs...) or holidays (to be honest, I knew I was going away but I thought I could work around it...turns out holidays aren't the most productive writing time for me) or little things such as graduation (happening TODAY at 6pm - eek!!). I am determined to finish this book to prove to myself that I CAN do it!

So here's my new deadline: 1st July 2012


That gives me a little over a week to finish this draft - and after that, I have all the fun of editing it - hooray!

I can't wait to see if I actually manage to do it. Even if I end up putting the deadline back AGAIN, I think I've learned something over the past few weeks - I'm definitely someone who needs a deadline to work to!!

Happy writing, everyone!

xx

And here comes the wall...

Sorry for the long silence guys - had a bad cold last week, followed by a migraine, followed by a stomach bug (which I'm only really getting over today). Yup, it never rains but it pours...

I'm going to warn you now. This is another one of my whining/ranting posts - so feel free not to read on if you don't want to! I promise I do have some interesting posts to write - I just can't seem to find the time/energy to write them right now haha!

Anyway, as I've complained about before, I have my first major deadline looming up next week. My aim was to have the first rough draft of my WIP finished by the 19th June, but I'm going to be honest - I don't know if I'll be able to do it. For a start, I've been pretty ill and that set me back a bit - but I could work around that if my motivation hadn't suddenly deserted me today. All throughout this particular WIP I've been excited about the story and where it's going, and eager to get the words down the page, telling myself that it doesn't matter if I don't like what I've written because I can go back and change it later.

That approach doesn't seem to be working so well today. I don't know what happened, but suddenly I looked at my WIP and although I am still so excited about the story, I just couldn't write anymore. I suspect a large part of this 'hitting the wall' feeling is because I'm currently writing a scene that is, well, a bit boring. I need the scene in the book to explain a few things that are going on (and to introduce the main conflict of the book actually) but I don't think it's in the form that I want it to be in. This shouldn't bother me, but I've actually rewritten this scene before and it's still not right. And now I'm wondering if everything I've written so far is boring, and if any of it even makes sense at all - which is not encouraging! Argh!

Plus, since I've been ill, I can't drink tea. So that's one of my major comforters down the drain!

I guess I'll just have to keep powering through. I know I can change scenes and edit it at a later date, but it is still a bit depressing when I don't get it right first time! Also, because the last few days haven't been as productive as I would have liked, I think I'm starting to assume that I won't be bale to finish at all....talk about being a pessimist!! I promise I'll try and cheer up by the time I write my next post ;)!

How do you cope with 'hitting the wall'? Do you keep on writing? Or do you step back and take a moment to think about your work before carrying on?

Hope you're all having a great day!

xx

IWSG #3!

Good grief, is it really that time of the month again?! Scary how much time flies...

Well, I'll keep this short and sweet - I was going to use this post as an opportunity to have a huge rant/grumble/complain (no change there then), but then I thought that I'll keep this post specific to the wonderful IWSG and write another post later :).

So, as you might be aware, I'm aiming on having a first draft of my manuscript completed by the 19th June. And I really did not think about how close that date actually is!! The main thing that I'm worried about at the moment is not finishing it, or losing my enthusiasm for the whole project, which I really don't want to do - I really want to finish this novel and see where I can go from there! I haven't been able to work on it as much as I would have liked too lately, as I've been in Norfolk - I'm back in Oxford now, but this is just a flying visit before we set off up to the great wide yonder that is Cumbria for the rest of the week....which leaves me a week and a half to write about 100,000 words...hmm...

So my plan is this - to keep writing down notes and ideas whenever I can, and when I get back from Cumbria (or maybe today actually, don't think we have any plans this afternoon) I'm going to stick on The Dark Knight in the background for inspiration while I feverishly write. Hopefully everything will go okay!

Can't wait to go and read the rest of the IWSG posts! The Insecure Wruter's Support Group was set up by the wonderful Alex. J. Cavanaugh - you can find the link to the whole group and an explanation of the rules below:

http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.co.uk/p/insecure-writers-support-group.html

Have a great day, everyone!

xx

Just a few updates...

So sorry I've abandoned the blog-o-sphere over the past few days - I'm currently in Norfolk visiting the Other Half's family and celebrating the Jubliee! (It's times like this I don't mind being British...)

Anyway, just a quick update on my progress....

June 19th is approaching rather faster than I thought it would to be honest! Still, I am not going to let this deter me. I said that was my deadline for a rough first, complete draft and that is still my aim. I haven't been able to get much done over the past few days due to the aforementioned Norfolk trip, and towards the end of this week I may be heading up to Cumbria, which means I won't actually be able to write again til next week!! However, in order to help the writing process along, I'm still scribbling down notes whenever I have a moment (when I'm not being distracted by the new Kindle app on my phone that is!), so I should be okay when I finally crack on with it....hopefully...

Anyway, I was hoping you guys could also give me some advice. Before I made up my mind about the whole novel-writing-in-25-days thing, I did apply for a couple more full time jobs, and I've received the offer of an interview on Thursday - hooray!
However, I've got to be honest....I really don't want to go. I mean, I really don't want to go. I would LOVE to work in publishing, but at the moment, I really want my writing to take priority. I'm not in any position financially to be that choosy tbh, and the job market is appalling at the moment, but I guess I just feel like I've been waiting to become a writer for so long that that's all I want to do now. I really really don't want to go to the interview  - I mean, there's no guarantee I'd even get the job, so I know I COULD just go and see what happens (at the very least, it'll be a good experience)....it just that I really don't want to. I want my writing to be the focus right now. And I know, even if I do finish my novel by the deadline and polish it and edit it within the next month or two that there's no guarantee it would get published - I'm well aware of all the pitfalls and rejections writers have to face, but still, it doesn't stop me hoping that one day, it'll happen.

Oh, and the Other Half said it was completely up to me. He told me to do whatever I want to do, which is a really sweet thing for him to say, but I'm still no closer to a decision! I know it probably seems like such a small thing to get worked up over, but I've never rejected an interview before and I'm just not sure what to do now lol.

I don't know. Am I being too romantic and stupid? Should I just go to the interview anyway and see what happens? Or should I follow my heart and just spend the summer writing lol?

Have a great nights, folks!

xx

I'm not complaining about the weather but....

....it is ridiculously hot.

I wouldn't normally mind, but I've started to get weird spot things on my arms, where I'm assuming I've been in the sun for too long,  so I've decided to take a break from the sun completely today. It's probably not a bad thing, as it'll mean I'll (hopefully) get more work done.

So, I was very pleased with my progress yesterday - managed to write over 10,000 words :O!! So that brings my entire total up to near enough 15,000! Not bad for a few days work I'm thinking....however, I didn't manage to get any writing done at the weekend, as we went to Somerset for a few days, so I guess I'm really just catching up on what I missed before.

Also, we're heading to Norfolk for five days tomorrow, which again, is going to severely cut into my writing time. I just feel like it would be a tad anti-social of me to sit there feverishly writing and ignoring all of the Other Half's family....but I think I will get some opportunity to write (I hope) - the Other Half has some work to do, and he said I could tag along to his workplace with him and sit and write, so I am quite looking forward to that :). Otherwise, I guess I'm just gonna have to do what I did over the weekend, and just keep scribbling down notes when I get a spare moment and then write them up when we get back.

So progress so far is coming along nicely! Although as I was writing yesterday, I did notice something that was wrong - I always knew that the beginning of my novel wouldn't be the beginning that the book would end up with (I was essentially just writing it so I could get some writing done), but I finally figured out what I can put in front of it, so the story makes sense lol. However, I have now realized that I have in effect started writing my book from about a quarter of the way through. Tad irritating, but I am looking forward to see what the beginning will actually look like!

I'll keep you updated throughout the day, and will hopefully get the chance to write up a more interesting blog post for you all later :). Have a great day, folks!

xx

It's decision time...

Okay, so as you all know, I'm pretty obsessed with my latest WIP and I don't want to lose enthusiasm for it. Therefore I've decided that I am going to give myself a deadline for this novel.

Now, this deadline won't be for the final FINAL draft - it'll be for the first draft, with all it's mistakes and in need of serious editing. But I thought that after I've finished the first draft, I'll set another deadline to complete the whole thing by, and then another deadline for all the revisions etc etc...but we'll just stick with the first draft for now.

So, when will this deadline be, I hear you cry? Well, I've decided that it will be...(drum roll please)

Tuesday 19th June 2012!


That's right, I'm giving myself less than a month (in fact a nice, round 25 days) to complete a first draft of my book.

So why this date? Well, I was going to give myself until 1st July, but then I thought, I've always wanted to complete a novel by the time I was 16, by the time I was 18 and then, by the time I was 21. I've never managed to stick to these deadlines and the reason I chose the 19th June is because I graduate on 20th June. What better way to celebrate becoming a fully-fledged adult that forcing myself to work hard, and cry, and drink endless cups of tea into the small hours of the morning? Well, in all honesty, I've had enough practice at this, having been a student for the past three years.

So that's the plan. By midnight on 19th June 2012, I will have completed the first draft of my novel. If I finish it before then (Ha! Unlikely!) then I will start the process of editing it, but I think I'll just settle for a rough manuscript for now. I'm off to add a countdown timer to my blog now, so I won't forget!

What do you guys think? Have you ever given yourself a tight deadline to complete a novel in? Let me know your thoughts!

xx