[PUBLIC POST] Deadlines and other pressures

[ljwrites]

I am heartily sorry for skipping the public post last week, I was writing a story under a deadline and the weekend has been a blur. To make up for it I'll write two public posts this week.

So, to turn my excuse into an actual discussion subject, do you do well with deadlines and other types of pressure when you write fiction? How does it help you? How does it hurt? Do different kinds of pressure work differently on your writing?

Comments

[warqueenfuriosa]

It sort of depends. Sometimes I do better with a deadline. Other times, I don't like the pressure, especially when a piece of writing just isn't working and I really need to spend time outlining/editing rather than forcing out whatever.

For rough drafts, I definitely need a deadline, like NaNoWriMo. With rough drafts, I will keep restarting or going back to fix little things and I won't get very far very fast so I need that constant push to keep going forward.

For more detailed writing, I don't like deadlines. I want to be able to take my time with it and get it just right.

[inevitableentresol]

I agree about deadlines being really helpful for rough drafts. That's the only time I self-impose a daily wordcount. It feels so good every day I hit that target. It's really motivating.

After the first draft is done, I find deadlines or quotas really unhelpful. It's a pity. I wish I could find something similar for the editing/polishing stage of writing, as deadlines are so effective at that first draft stage.

[inkdust]

That's exactly how I feel. Daily word counts worked great for my initial novel draft, but once I got into the editing stages I've struggled to find a concrete marker. I hold out hope that eventually I'll work something out.

[ljwrites]

(Just throwing out ideas) Maybe editing a given unit, such as a scene or a chapter? It may also help to break the job into stages, such as high-level, chapter-level, scene-level and so on.

[ljwrites]

I think the founder of NaNoWriMo himself doesn't recommend it for anything but pushing out a first draft. I have a very mixed history with NaNo-style challenges myself (tried it, won it, burned out), I think as far as deadlines go I'm happier when they're reasonable enough for me to actually think about what I'm writing and turn out at least a semi-polished product.