I may have rambled here before about deadlines. I seem to be on one most of the time, even though sometimes they’re self-imposed.

Douglas Adams had a great quote about them: “I like deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

My deadlines don’t usually fly by, unless it’s one that I’ve set myself. I pretty much ignore those. I figure if I only have myself to answer to, the deadline doesn’t really matter. After all, what’s the worst I can do to myself?

So in order to keep things running, I’ve discovered I need to be accountable to someone else. I realize that sounds like a cop-out, and in some ways it is. I mean, I should be able to set goals for myself and reach them without having someone else check in on me or without having to let someone else know whether I’ve made it or not. The problem is, it just doesn’t seem to work that way for me. I want to write; heck, I need to write or I’ll go nuts. But to actually finish something in a reasonable amount of time, it helps me to have to tell someone else whether I’m getting there or not.

Naturally, when I have a manuscript that’s been accepted by a publisher, I receive deadlines for the revisions they request. However, first I have to finish manuscripts and revise them to a point where I can submit them. That’s where the informal deadlines come in. It’s a lot easier for me to have an online friend tell me to have something done by a certain time than it is to tell myself…

Right now, I’m operating under three deadlines. One of them is sort of self-imposed, though since it involves a revise/resubmit to a publisher, the publisher knows what the deadline is. The other two, I set the final deadline, but an online writing friend broke it down into smaller, weekly chunks for me.

I have fun with deadlines. My competitive spirit kicks in, and I try my hardest to beat the deadline. Usually I succeed.

Hopefully I won’t ever hear that whoosh as a deadline flies by.