Caution: Deadlines Ahead
At fourteen years old, I decided I wanted to write, specifically write feature stories about people, places, and interesting events for newspapers. I wrote what I knew, namely the activities of my high school in Franklin, Louisiana. No Pulitzer Prize-winning content there.
The weekly newspaper where I worked, The Franklin Post, came out every Friday, so Thursdays were crazy. All the stories had to be written and edited; the accompanying photographs taken, developed, and printed; the articles typed into a machine that justified the text and spit out long strings of copy, and the pages laid out using rubber cement to paste the columns of text and red cardboard squares as photo markers properly positioned on these large white, graphed sheets of paper. Whew!
It was a frantic race each week to have all of that work done and in the hands of the editor as he raced to a newspaper in New Iberia large enough to have its own printing press.
Why am I telling you all about my early writing career? To let you know that deadlines work.
If the paper didn’t make it to the printer on time, we had no edition for the week. Ours was a small town, and people took their news seriously, so missing a week was not an option.
Today, if I need to write a Sunday Story or a vlog script, I do it with a deadline. If I had weeks or months to write a piece, I would likely still be writing, tweaking, and revising until the deadline stares me in the face.
Deadlines work and are a great way to force you to put your memories to paper.
With all that said, I give you the Free Five-Day Writing Challenge as a solution to procrastination and too much tinkering.
For five days, Monday, February 19 – Friday, February 23, you will receive a short lesson and a writing prompt to guide you in writing Landscapes of Your Life.
But you won’t be left to do it all on your own. On Sunday, February 18, at 6:00 p.m. ET, we’ll have a kickoff party and orientation session where I’ll map out the challenge for you and answer questions. Don’t worry if you can’t attend live. A replay will be available.
Then, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of challenge week, I’ll do a check-in call at 1:00 p.m. ET, where you can make yourself accountable, tell us what you plan to write that day, and ask questions.
Plus, you’ll be surrounded by others traveling the same path.
At the end of the challenge, you’ll have time to edit and submit a story for feedback from a small group of fellow challengers.
If you want all the details about the challenge, go to Landscapes of Your Life.
Then, after you’ve signed up for the Free Five-Day Writing Challenge, tell us about your experience with deadlines. Do you love them or hate them? Do they work well for you? How do you give yourself deadlines?
Until next time, happy writing!
Also, if you know someone expecting a new bundle of joy, check out Baby’s Five-Year Journal, which we just received. With a beautiful cover of baby animals and fourteen pages explaining five-year journaling and how to do it successfully, Baby’s Five-Year Journal is the perfect gift for new moms and dads.
Please note: All grammatical and typographical errors have been put in this article for
your enjoyment in finding them.
Deadlines work wonders for me and if I need to create in the urgency of the moment, all the better. For an efficient result when faced with a deadline, I immediatly jump in the subject, write and or research so that the full picture is in my mind and in written words. A brainstorm of somme sort. The remaining time to get to port wheter it be smooth sailing or navigating demented seas, brings satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.