TUESDAY THOUGHTS: DEADLINES

I blew it. There’s nothing writers hate more than missing a deadline, even if it’s self-imposed.

I’m up to my ears in the first draft of my third novel, HIS KIND OF MUSIC. I had set myself the objective of completing it by the end of February. Oops—that was two days ago, and I still have two chapters (at least) to write.

What difference does it make, especially if I set the deadline myself? Well, what happens next is sending it to my Beta Readers for them to do their thing. They are a critical part of the process. I want to give them enough time to go through it and give me their invaluable feedback.

Then I have to make my changes—and I know there’ll be some—before I send it to the professional Editor for the last pass. That’s where the plot thickens, as they say. The Editor scheduled me for a slot beginning April 18. I HAVE to send it to her by then.

So, if you back up from there, I don’t have a minute to spare. Write, write, write my head off until it’s done. Never mind all those other things in your life—JUST DO IT.

Except we all know it’s not that easy. All those other things in my life DO matter. I can’t ignore everything else. Life doesn’t work that way—nor should it.

So—I write when I can, more than I usually do most days. In between, I play with the four-year-old granddaughter we’re babysitting when I can. I work on overthinking the plans for our vacation trip to Germany and London this summer—a trip we’ve had to postpone for two years already. I work on the church’s monthly financial report (as church Treasurer), as well as working out how to better cast music videos to the church’s projector system during our Sunday worship services.

You can see it should be no problem. Just a few other things to distract me from writing. But never fear, it’ll get done. Fortunately, I have the cover design finished, including the tagline and blurb for the back cover":

“She’s a world-class cellist who has it all—except the one man who’s always believed in her.”

Look for it on Amazon Kindle this summer—I promise!