Deadlines have always fascinated me as a writer. Not theconcept of them, but the idea that someone can write, and write well, with oneof them hanging over their head like a guillotine. 

I know me. I would succumb to the pressure. Not that I wouldmiss my deadline, but I’d be a nervous wreck and undoubtably suffer from a lossof appetite and lack of sleep. 

That’s not how I ever wanted my writing career to be. 

I enjoy writing, and I’ve always wanted to keep it that way. 

Back before I was a professional writer, I still did lots ofwriting. Technical stuff, mostly. Procedure manuals, reports, term papers, thatsort of thing. I did it for school, I did it for the various jobs I had inmedical technology, laboratory management, and biomedical research. There wereusually deadlines associated with them, but it was okay, because thepapers/documents/etc. weren’t long. We’re talking no more than 10 pages. Easystuff; back in college I learned I could wait until something was almost dueand then still produce a pretty good paper. When I got out into the workingworld, I found out I couldn’t wait until the last moment of the deadlinebecause there were always multiple deadlines to handle, but having honed theability to write fast helped me meet all of them. 

The thing is, technical documents don’t require a lot ofimagination. You have your data and you just have to phrase it in ways thatusers or readers will understand. 

Fiction, for me at least, was different. 

Having a deadline looming over me seemed to set up all sortsof roadblocks for creativity. I would keep second-guessing what I’d written. Orworse, not come up with anything at all. 

I learned this about myself during a job I had before Istarted writing horror. I’d just left a laboratory management job and decidedto try and make a go of being self-employed. Picked up a gig with The PrincetonReview, writing test prep guides for 3rd, 4th, and 5th-gradelanguage arts. Part of that required writing 1-page reading passages and theassociated questions. 

And I had deadlines / milestones for each week. 

I was also just starting my resume business at the time, andthose first few days I put off doing the reading passages to focus on writingthe resumes, which I believed would be harder and take longer. 

Next thing I know, it’s the night before due date and I’mstaying up late working, because I’m hitting a creative roadblock. 

After that, I always made sure to get the fiction writingdone before anything. 

Now, as the years have gone by, I’ve gotten a lot better. I’vewritten dozens of short stories to deadline (submit between this date and thatdate!), I’ve never been late with edits (can you get them back in 2 weeks?Guess what, I’ll do it in a week!), and I’ve even delivered a few novelsagainst deadlines. Those deadlines might be 8 months or 12 months, but justhearing those words gives me agita. 

Which is why early in my career I developed my own rule ofwriting: Never pitch a book unless it’s finished. 

I know there are writers who can pitch based on a synopsisor idea, but not me. I can’t imagine having 4-5 contracts signed, with specificdelivery dates that seem too close together, and still being able to think of agood story and put it on paper. I’d have ulcers on top of ulcers. So I don’t doit. 

Write, then pitch. I’ve done that with 22 of my 24 books. (Forthe other two, one I pitched when it was half-written, and the other was a sequeland I knew exactly what I wanted to do.) 

All of which brings me to the topic of this post. 

Currently, I’m working on a novel. I pitched it to my agentback in June, and at the time it was about 1/3 finished. Agent loves it, wantsto see it ASAP. Great. I start working furiously on it. 

Except… things come up. I see an anthology I want to submitto. Then I see another one, this one asking for novellas, and I have this greatidea. Fantastic idea. But no way can I finish the book and then write thenovella before the novella’s due date. This causes a dilemma. Do I not writethe stuff I really want to write, and focus on the novel? Or do I put the novelaside and do the two things that I’m really interested in? 

Suddenly, it’s a real deadline vs. a self-imposed deadline(I had really wanted to finish my novel by the end of the year, just to be donewith it!). Deadlines vs. desires, because I want to write them all but time islimited. 

In the end, I’ve decided to do the novella, skip the shortstory, and get back to the novel faster. I know that next year, when I read theanthology I’m skipping, I’ll be super pissed at myself and think ‘I could’vebeen in this one!’ even though there’s no guarantee of acceptance. The braindoesn’t work that way. 

Anyhow, the one good thing is that if I’d signed a contractfor the novel, I’d be in a situation where I’d have to skip the short story ANDthe novella, simply because of a deadline. 

I’m much happier this way.