Deadlines! We complain about them when we have them and fantasise about them when we don’t. This year I experienced the beauty of the deadline, handing in 4,000 word assignments for my Masters coursework every seven weeks while working on a 12,000 word major project. It adds up to 32,000 words (not counting the other 30,000 I would have edited out) and it sure feels good. Why? Because you did the thing you said you would, without making excuses or putting it off to that mythical ‘one day when I have time.’
The deadline paid off recently for Raymond Hawkins when Jennifer Byrne launched his first book published by Halstead Press, The Electronic Swagman – the story of a man, a dog, the road, and a lot of dead people.
Raymond loved a daily deadline and would faithfully send me pages from the outback while he was busy running his 2011 Into the Blue season of creative walks. I’m sure he would agree with me that a deadline also fosters a certain level of intensity, that brings out the ‘you didn’t know you had it in you’ kind of writing.
Like the work I’ve been doing in recent weeks with mystery writer A.D. Scott. A.D. got in touch when her publisher Simon & Schuster asked for the draft of her fourth book in 6 weeks. (A.D. workshopped book number three, Beneath The Abbey Wall with us in Luang Prabang last year).
Ok, thats 10,100 words a week, I said – you can do it! We set up a timetable of weekly skype check ins on Fridays at 5pm. Deborah (A.D.) lives in Vietnam and the background sounds to our calls fed in nicely to my masters writing project – following the footsteps of French writer, Marguerite Duras in Indochina.
Deborah met her goal of 1,500 words a day and described to me how the characters had taken over the story, how she just had to trust that they knew where the story was doing even if she didn’t. Exhausting yes, intense yes, but look what you have to show for it – a book in the hand is worth three in the (fantasy land) bush!
Read more from A.D’s blog and the Electronic Swagman blog and think about hiring Yours Truly as your deadline mistress or joining this years goal busting Summer Writer’s Lab starting Nov 25.
Early November I’m heading off to The Northern Kingdoms Poetry Festival in Siem Reap, Cambodia, followed by The AP Writers & Translators Conference in Bangkok, so I will be bursting with ideas and inspiration for our Luang Prabang Retreat.
Don’t forget there’s still room on Nov:Mekong Meditations, January: Moroccan Caravan. March: Fiji Island Writers Lab.
IN PLANNING 2013: May: Bookish in Bhutan, Festival and Retreat; June: To The Lighthouse Walk & Write Croajigalong National Park; Nov: Mekong Writers Lab; Dec: Burmese Temple Tour.
Photo Matthew Norris.
