A goal is a dream with a deadline. ~Napoleon Hill
Persistence is the word I always tell aspiring writers they need to be sure is in their arsenal of writing tools. It’s good to have a gift for words. It’s even better to have the imagination to come up with unique and exciting story ideas. Enthusiasm for any project is a necessity. But if you want to succeed at writing, you have to be persistent. Persevere. Keep on keeping on when the enthusiasm flags, when the words desert you, when the imagination dries up like a shallow pond in a drought. Persistence is the stream of creativity, the thing that wears away the rock of doubt in your writing ability.
Persistence is how books get written. One word after another. One sentence after another. One chapter after another. Having a deadline makes persistence a necessity. Deadlines mean you can’t put off writing until you’re feeling more creative, until life is less hectic, until summer vacation is over. I have a deadline in three days. I’ve scheduled something on two of those days. I’ll have to go to the nursing facility to be with my mother part of the time on all of those days. Mother is not doing well so there will be no way I can work while I’m sitting with her. But I intend to meet this deadline. I think I can. I hope I can.
I read the new story over. It isn’t perfect, but I think the story is there. It was hard writing all the way through. Some books are. Some books are easier. For the books that are hard, it’s good to have a deadline. Something to keep your fingers on the keyboard when you feel drained of words and ideas.
For years I worked without deadlines. That’s because I wrote without having contracts. I wrote the book and then hoped an editor somewhere would like it. Less pressure. More freedom. Less success. I like having a deadline. It keeps me motivated. It keeps me pushing to get the stories written. But even when I didn’t have contracted deadlines, I set goals for myself. Those dream deadlines.
July 1 is an exciting date for more reasons than my deadline. It’s the release date for The Gifted. I hope to get a newsletter out on that date. Another deadline to meet. Bought a couple of prizes for my Celebration Giveaway. Come back Sunday for details.
Thanks for reading! Oh, and one of those scheduled days is a book fair in Horse Cave, Kentucky. I hope to be there – unless Mom is worse. If you’re in the area, come out and check out the writers and books.