I need a vacation. It's been a busy, wonderful, hectic year. Yesterday I didn't get out of my pajamas until 12:30 pm but only because I didn't want to lose five minutes of revising time. The deadline I set WILL be met!! It. Will. Be. Met.
Yes, I attacked the emergency KitKat bar in the fridge. No, I do not regret it.
Since I'm unable to sit on the beach at this time, I figured I'd do the next best thing. Watch a video of turquoise waters, boats, sails, waves, and the glorious sky.
Why don't you do the same? Take a few minutes. Relax. Let your soul breathe!
Are you desperate for a vacation? Where would you go if you had the choice?
*Exciting update: My book, New Lease on Love, is a finalist in ACFW's Genesis contest for unpublished writers! Praise God!*
Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Showing posts with label deadlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deadlines. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Friday, July 29, 2011
Are Personal Deadlines Important?
Ah, guilt. Anyone familiar with social media occasionally comes down with a crushing case of it, and I'm no exception. You may or may not have noticed I haven't been around blogs, Facebook, or Twitter much this summer, and my children have definitely noticed I'm spending more time than usual in my office.
I'm striving to meet a personal deadline.
No, I don't have a contract with a set date on when my manuscript needs to be finished. I don't have a boss. I don't even have another obligation coming up to spur my current progress. But I do have a set of writing rules I live by. The most important?
Act like a published writer.
Published writers are given deadlines from their editors. They have to organize their projects to fit into this time frame. Three years ago, I decided I would do the same. When I start a new project, I decide on a finish date and plan accordingly. My finish date for this project is the end of next week.
Trust me, there have been many, many times this summer in between shuttling my son to baseball tournaments and my daughter to tumbling sessions that I've yawned, rubbed my bleary eyes and thought I'll skip revising this afternoon. It's summer--we need to go to the beach.
If I didn't have a personal deadline shouting at me, I would have slacked off this month and set my project back until fall. Instead, we skipped the beach, headed to the pool for quick jaunts, and I squeezed in revising during hours I normally wouldn't. Do I regret it? No. Once I finish this book, we'll have almost three weeks to relax and enjoy the rest of summer.
It's important for me to know I can meet my deadlines. I don't want to stress about this when I do get a contract. When we get used to finishing our projects in the time we allotted, our confidence grows. By acting like published writers, we're assured we'll be able to handle the responsibilities a book contract brings.
Do you set personal deadlines? Do you think they're important? Why or why not?
I would love it if you would stop by MVRWA's blog today to read my post, "NFL and Publishing: Shaking It Up."
Have an amazing weekend!
I'm striving to meet a personal deadline.
No, I don't have a contract with a set date on when my manuscript needs to be finished. I don't have a boss. I don't even have another obligation coming up to spur my current progress. But I do have a set of writing rules I live by. The most important?
Act like a published writer.
Published writers are given deadlines from their editors. They have to organize their projects to fit into this time frame. Three years ago, I decided I would do the same. When I start a new project, I decide on a finish date and plan accordingly. My finish date for this project is the end of next week.
Trust me, there have been many, many times this summer in between shuttling my son to baseball tournaments and my daughter to tumbling sessions that I've yawned, rubbed my bleary eyes and thought I'll skip revising this afternoon. It's summer--we need to go to the beach.
If I didn't have a personal deadline shouting at me, I would have slacked off this month and set my project back until fall. Instead, we skipped the beach, headed to the pool for quick jaunts, and I squeezed in revising during hours I normally wouldn't. Do I regret it? No. Once I finish this book, we'll have almost three weeks to relax and enjoy the rest of summer.
It's important for me to know I can meet my deadlines. I don't want to stress about this when I do get a contract. When we get used to finishing our projects in the time we allotted, our confidence grows. By acting like published writers, we're assured we'll be able to handle the responsibilities a book contract brings.
Do you set personal deadlines? Do you think they're important? Why or why not?
I would love it if you would stop by MVRWA's blog today to read my post, "NFL and Publishing: Shaking It Up."
Have an amazing weekend!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Career Preparation: Deadlines
This week, we conclude our talk about career preparation with a brief chat about a scary word: deadlines.
As an unpublished author, I think it's easy to get a rosy, unrealistic picture of what published life is like. We think, "if I just get published, everything will fall into place."
When you're unpublished, you can take as long as you want to write your book. You can work on it here or there or not at all. If it takes five years to complete, that's okay. However, when you get published, you might get a contract for more than one book. Wonderful!
Except...what if it took you two years to write book one, and your contract states you have one year to turn in book two?
No problem. I'll be motivated since I have a deadline.
Sounds good, but will you? Really? You'll be dealing with another set of deadlines at the same time: revisions of book one. You also might be scrambling to get a website published. And nothing in your life will have changed. Most people can't afford to quit their day job when they publish a book. Most stay-at-home mothers still have the same amount of responsibilities (and the same amount of children, maybe even more!).
I'm not writing this to scare anyone; in fact some of my friends are going through this very process now and handling it beautifully. I am not going through this, but I pretend I am to stay motivated. I'm weird like that.
I'd like to offer a few practical tips to set and meet deadlines. For all you writers of single title books in any genre, aim to complete your novel in one year. This includes revisions. For all of you writers of shorter books, like category novels, aim for a minimum of two books a year.
Editors often give authors a year to complete a single title book. Some publishers give less time. If you get in the practice of finishing a book in a year now, it will probably get easier to complete a book in a shorter period as you progress.
Category books are another animal. Since these are published monthly, editors are always hungry for more books from authors they trust. Get in the habit of finishing two books a year, and you might be surprised to learn you can squeeze out three--or more.
In order to complete books on a deadline, you're going to have to get out a calendar and plan.
Do you know how many words you can write in a day? A week? A month?
Don't guess. Keep a daily log and track your progress. Estimate how long it will take you to write the first draft. Mark your calendar with your target first draft completion date. Then estimate how long it will take you to revise. If you revise as you go, skip the first draft estimate and go straight to when you think you'll finish the book.
Get out your calculator. If you're writing a 95,000 word book, write the word count you should be at for each month. Example: if you start the book in January and estimate it will take six months, you'll need to write 15,900 words a month. Mark 15.9K at the end of January, 31.8K at the end of February, and so on until the end of May reads 95K. You can follow the same process with revising.
Do you write every weekday? Weekends only? Three days a week? If you need to complete 15.9K words a month and you write every weekday, you should have roughly twenty days of writing. Divide the 15.9K into 20 to get 795 words a day. If you only write on weekends, you'll only have around eight days a month. You'll need to write 1988 words each of these days to stay on track.
I can't wait until each and every one of us have deadlines from our editors. Won't that be amazing? In the meantime, challenge yourself to meet your own deadlines.
Have a very happy Thanksgiving!! I will not be posting on Friday this week. For all you shopping this Black Friday--be safe and get some great deals! For everyone else, enjoy your weekend!
As an unpublished author, I think it's easy to get a rosy, unrealistic picture of what published life is like. We think, "if I just get published, everything will fall into place."
When you're unpublished, you can take as long as you want to write your book. You can work on it here or there or not at all. If it takes five years to complete, that's okay. However, when you get published, you might get a contract for more than one book. Wonderful!
Except...what if it took you two years to write book one, and your contract states you have one year to turn in book two?
No problem. I'll be motivated since I have a deadline.
Sounds good, but will you? Really? You'll be dealing with another set of deadlines at the same time: revisions of book one. You also might be scrambling to get a website published. And nothing in your life will have changed. Most people can't afford to quit their day job when they publish a book. Most stay-at-home mothers still have the same amount of responsibilities (and the same amount of children, maybe even more!).
I'm not writing this to scare anyone; in fact some of my friends are going through this very process now and handling it beautifully. I am not going through this, but I pretend I am to stay motivated. I'm weird like that.
I'd like to offer a few practical tips to set and meet deadlines. For all you writers of single title books in any genre, aim to complete your novel in one year. This includes revisions. For all of you writers of shorter books, like category novels, aim for a minimum of two books a year.
Editors often give authors a year to complete a single title book. Some publishers give less time. If you get in the practice of finishing a book in a year now, it will probably get easier to complete a book in a shorter period as you progress.
Category books are another animal. Since these are published monthly, editors are always hungry for more books from authors they trust. Get in the habit of finishing two books a year, and you might be surprised to learn you can squeeze out three--or more.
In order to complete books on a deadline, you're going to have to get out a calendar and plan.
Do you know how many words you can write in a day? A week? A month?
Don't guess. Keep a daily log and track your progress. Estimate how long it will take you to write the first draft. Mark your calendar with your target first draft completion date. Then estimate how long it will take you to revise. If you revise as you go, skip the first draft estimate and go straight to when you think you'll finish the book.
Get out your calculator. If you're writing a 95,000 word book, write the word count you should be at for each month. Example: if you start the book in January and estimate it will take six months, you'll need to write 15,900 words a month. Mark 15.9K at the end of January, 31.8K at the end of February, and so on until the end of May reads 95K. You can follow the same process with revising.
Do you write every weekday? Weekends only? Three days a week? If you need to complete 15.9K words a month and you write every weekday, you should have roughly twenty days of writing. Divide the 15.9K into 20 to get 795 words a day. If you only write on weekends, you'll only have around eight days a month. You'll need to write 1988 words each of these days to stay on track.
I can't wait until each and every one of us have deadlines from our editors. Won't that be amazing? In the meantime, challenge yourself to meet your own deadlines.
Have a very happy Thanksgiving!! I will not be posting on Friday this week. For all you shopping this Black Friday--be safe and get some great deals! For everyone else, enjoy your weekend!
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