[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]

I hear you on handling those longer pieces. I got started writing with short stories and fanfiction one shots so the transition to writing novels has been hellish.
I've been struggling with a novel for several years, never making it past the first couple of chapters, because I lose motivation or I want to change something or I just keep kicking myself back to rewrite the first chapter or two. I have absolutely no idea how people write 1,000 page novels.

[inevitableentresol]

Rewriting the first few chapters over and over again is my huge weakness. The number of times I've done that is incredible. I can never seem to move on, even when I have my direction clear in my head.

I think my problem is that I see a novel as whole entity. When you read one, you relate to it like that. Writing one can take years. So it has to be a different task.

With a short story, it's possible to re-read the start quickly before settling down again to that day's writing, just to get my place again. With a novel, that's impossible. Yet I can't break myself from the habit. And so the tinkering.

Making notes for what happens in each chapter would probably be a much better idea, and then forbidding myself from re-reading the start at all... which will probably be a lot easier said than done. It's so hard to break the habit.

I know at least writers who sends their books chapter by chapter to their editors (Maeve Binchy, according to her editor), so she's forced to continually move on and not re-write previous chapters. Apparently Binchy also has the most appalling spelling according to her editor, which is an amusing side-fact. Of course, once all the chapters are done the whole thing still has to be edited. It's the editing that gets me stuck.