[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

[inevitableentresol]

Rewards are the most important part of the process. :)

The reward that works the best for me is comics. I've used them for about three years now as a motivation tool. The first year I used them as rewards, I wrote the most I ever had in one year.

Comics are a complete indulgence for me, not too expensive, and if I meet my writing quota then I get to read another chapter that week. I'm reading Saga right now, and it's incredible, but I didn't make my writing goal last week, so I don't get to read the next chapter yet.

The hardest part for me is setting my weekly goal target. It can take a lot of tweaking to get right.

If I make my writing goal on just over half the weeks, I figure I've set it about right. It has to be easy enough to encourage me, but not easy enough to take no effort at all.

[ljwrites]

You have awesome willpower to be able to withhold comics from yourself. I've heard good things about Saga, and may check it out myself. I had mixed reactions to Vaughan's writing in Y: The Last Man, but it's fully possible that Saga is more to my tastes.

I think setting realistic goals is the hardest part of the process, too, and it's a skill I'm still trying to master.