A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.
~ Rita Mae Brown ~
If you are a writer, especially a fiction writer, then you are very aware that October is almost over and that means…
NaNoWriMo!
If you are not a fiction writer, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, an event that began in 1999 in San Francisco with 21 participating writers and has since grown to last year’s 421,626 participants from all over the world. Their mission, as stated on their website: “National Novel Writing Month believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.”
How do they do that? Well, their primary program is the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month, beginning November 1st and ending at the stroke of midnight (actually, the minute before) on November 30. And since they began their national challenge, over 250 participants have been traditionally published including Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder.
Three things help many participants to meet this daunting goal—community, accountability, and a deadline.
Once you sign up for the free program, you get emails about regional and local gatherings of other participants who meet to write together and offer support. Regular emails from popular published authors offer encouragement. Each day, you go to the site to enter your daily word count. Near the end of the month, you can upload your manuscript for an official word count to win.
The deadline is key to the popularity of this event. You only win if you write 50,000 words in 30 days, by the end of the month…not one day or one hour after.
True, no one is going harass or embarrass you if you don’t meet that deadline. You won’t lose a contract. But if you commit to the goal, then not meeting it feels a little unsettling, especially if you’ve been participating in the online forums or attending the local write-ins.
Deadlines, whether self-imposed or not, create structure, a container for your work.
They give you a mark against which you can measure production and growth.
Deadlines help you push past the resistance that is procrastination.
Steven Pressfield, in his book, The War of Art, says “The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit…Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives…This second, we can sit down and do our work.” A deadline helps you do that.
Deadlines help you manage your time.
When you have a deadline, you know how to divide up your hours or days to determine how much work you need to accomplish per hour or day, and how much you’ll have to make up if you don’t meet that goal.
If you don’t have an external deadline like a contract, a contest, or NaNoWriMo, then create your own and enlist the help of a colleague or friend to keep you accountable. Maybe you can return the favor for that person.
Just make sure that your deadline is reasonable and doable.
Promise yourself a reward for reaching a deadline. NaNoWriMo participants and winners receive goodies from participating sponsors like Storyist and Evernote. So promise yourself a reward…new software for writing, or ice cream at your favorite creamery, or whatever delights your inner child.
Use deadlines to spur you into action, to keep you motivated, productive and…inspired.