Deadly Farts and Writing Deadlines by Shannon Mayer
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What is one of the BIGGEST problems writers have? Is it the lack of story ideas? Plotting conundrums? Rejection by agents and editors? All of those may very well have a part in your writing life, but they get discussed so much, and there are so many blogs, articles, presentations, speeches and so forth about these subjects, all better written than what I could put out that it seems silly for me to write about them.
There is one issue, though, that most, if not all, writers have that rarely gets discussed. One that I have come close to mastering, hence the reason I was asked to write about it.
Keeping your deadlines.
“Of course I can keep my deadlines" you say, "as soon as I get an agent and have some outside pressure, there will be NO problem with keeping deadlines. I mean, then this, writing full-time, will be “real.”
Therein lies the problem. You need to be able to keep deadlines NOW before you ever get an agent or an editor, before your first book gets published. Because if you leave learning to meet your deadlines until it “really” happens, you won’t be any good at meeting them.
Let me share a story with you, one that changed my perception and helped me to start making and keeping my own deadlines, something that has since served me well.
I attended a writer’s conference where a young man, a debut author was doing a workshop on starting out in the publishing world.
For the most part he was only interested in impressing the ladies, cracking jokes and trying to make people look silly for asking, what were often very good questions. To start off with, this irritated me. He was wasting our time if he wasn’t about to share some knowledge with us.
So, after one of the young women with a shirt cut to her naval brought in a can of pop for him, I put up my hand.
“How do you keep your deadlines.” I asked. (I was working on a series at the time and worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up with an agent’s deadlines)
He laughed and waved his hand around in the air as if he’d just farted, a grimace on his face only adding to the image. “I’m four months behind on one deadline, three on another. It doesn’t matter if you don’t keep them, just be sure to let your people know.”
My jaw hit the floor, he might as well have farted as I couldn't catch my breath at his audacity. In fact, in some ways I wish that was what was making me light-headed. All those people in the room where nodding, as IF WHAT HE'D JUST SAID WAS OKAY! Was I the only one who recognized that statement for the undermining words that they were? In fart language what he'd just produced was the deadly silent but violent! No one else seemed to acknowledge that it was wrong, they just breathed it in and acted like it smelled like petunias! He'd infected all those people with the belief that it was OKAY to miss deadlines, that all writers do it. It would have been better off for all of us if he'd just let one rip instead of opening his mouth.
I found out later that this young man was the son of a rather famous author, and, so riding on his mother’s coattails he was able to just float along.
Did he have a wife and children, another full-time job that kept him from reaching his deadlines? Did he have a farm (one of my time eaters) to take care of?
Nope.
He was single, had no job other than writing, and spent most of his time playing video games. (Self admitted) Do I think he will make it long-term as an author? I have serious doubts, he may only make it because of his rather famous mother. Which is something you and I do not have to rely on.
He had the opportunity that we all hope for and he was wasting it because he was unable to have some self push, some commitment to making his deadlines. I decided then and there that I was going to be ready to take on the publishing world; I would be prepared to keep deadlines.
This is how I do it, feel free to steal my ideas!
First decide on how many steps you have till your book is complete. For me, it goes like this.
Each step takes a certain amount of time. I have a great team now, but it’s taken me a while to put them together. Now they know how I work and what I expect of them and they have an idea of how long I will give them to complete their jobs. I know exactly (or close to it) how long it will take each one to do their job, for whatever size of manuscript I am working on.
Now, I decide what day I want to see my book on Amazon. Or, if you are trying to hit up an agent or be ready for a certain conference that is good too. It doesn’t really matter as long as you have a goal, one that you can’t wiggle out of. Announce it on Twitter, Facebook and your blog. This will help hold you accountable to your deadline.
Let’s say today is January 1st 2011 and you have a conference you want to be at, and you want your new manuscript ready to go by June1st for that conference.
The first thing you’d need to do is take your list of steps, and work them backwards.
June 1st- Final pass finished, Book ready to be pitched.
May 20th- Proof reader’s revisions in my hands
May 10th- Manuscript to Proof reader
May 5th- Second round of revisions done
May 1st- Second round of revisions back from Editor
April 15th- Manuscript to Editor for second round of revisions
April 10th- First round of Revisions back from Editor
March 25th- Manuscript to Editor for first round of revisions
March 15th- Beta reader suggestions back
March 1st- Manuscript to Beta readers
February 28th- Tidy up of manuscript before it goes to Betas
February 20th- Finish first rough draft
January 1st- Start first rough draft.
This is a schedule for something I would do anywhere from 30k words up to 85k words. The trick is to lay it all out, schedule your editors in advance and HOLD to those schedules. Yes, this will mean you will have to sit down, and write every day. By doing this you will create habits that will allow you to keep schedules. Both those you set for yourself and those a publishing house will set for you one day.
At first it may be difficult, painful even, but in the end, when your readers are dancing because it’s only been a few months between books instead of years, it will all be worth it.
[[A side note, but very important. Never let your quality slide. This is where deadlines can be tricky and I mention it because I don’t want people to think I just threw books up on the internet, nor do I think you should either. If the story, writing, plot, characters aren’t good enough, no matter the deadline, the novel shouldn’t be put up or pitched to agents. Period. This is where having people who will be honest with you i.e. paid editors, is so important. They will help you make the decision about readiness of the manuscript. Meeting deadlines IS important, but you still have to reach for the highest quality possible or meeting deadlines won't be your only problem.]]
While Shannon has an agent, she has also self published The Nevermore Trilogy, a series about a post apocalyptic world and a young couple attempting to survive despite dark secrets between them. The release dates for this trilogy were Sundered, Sept 2nd 2011, Bound, Sept 15th 2011, Dauntless, October 31st 2011. She also has plans to release Dark Waters, the 1st book in the Celtic Legacy Series, December 2011 with the following books in that trilogy being released shortly thereafter.
[/caption]What is one of the BIGGEST problems writers have? Is it the lack of story ideas? Plotting conundrums? Rejection by agents and editors? All of those may very well have a part in your writing life, but they get discussed so much, and there are so many blogs, articles, presentations, speeches and so forth about these subjects, all better written than what I could put out that it seems silly for me to write about them.
There is one issue, though, that most, if not all, writers have that rarely gets discussed. One that I have come close to mastering, hence the reason I was asked to write about it.
Keeping your deadlines.
“Of course I can keep my deadlines" you say, "as soon as I get an agent and have some outside pressure, there will be NO problem with keeping deadlines. I mean, then this, writing full-time, will be “real.”
Therein lies the problem. You need to be able to keep deadlines NOW before you ever get an agent or an editor, before your first book gets published. Because if you leave learning to meet your deadlines until it “really” happens, you won’t be any good at meeting them.
Let me share a story with you, one that changed my perception and helped me to start making and keeping my own deadlines, something that has since served me well.
I attended a writer’s conference where a young man, a debut author was doing a workshop on starting out in the publishing world.
For the most part he was only interested in impressing the ladies, cracking jokes and trying to make people look silly for asking, what were often very good questions. To start off with, this irritated me. He was wasting our time if he wasn’t about to share some knowledge with us.
So, after one of the young women with a shirt cut to her naval brought in a can of pop for him, I put up my hand.
“How do you keep your deadlines.” I asked. (I was working on a series at the time and worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up with an agent’s deadlines)
He laughed and waved his hand around in the air as if he’d just farted, a grimace on his face only adding to the image. “I’m four months behind on one deadline, three on another. It doesn’t matter if you don’t keep them, just be sure to let your people know.”
My jaw hit the floor, he might as well have farted as I couldn't catch my breath at his audacity. In fact, in some ways I wish that was what was making me light-headed. All those people in the room where nodding, as IF WHAT HE'D JUST SAID WAS OKAY! Was I the only one who recognized that statement for the undermining words that they were? In fart language what he'd just produced was the deadly silent but violent! No one else seemed to acknowledge that it was wrong, they just breathed it in and acted like it smelled like petunias! He'd infected all those people with the belief that it was OKAY to miss deadlines, that all writers do it. It would have been better off for all of us if he'd just let one rip instead of opening his mouth.
I found out later that this young man was the son of a rather famous author, and, so riding on his mother’s coattails he was able to just float along.
Did he have a wife and children, another full-time job that kept him from reaching his deadlines? Did he have a farm (one of my time eaters) to take care of?
Nope.
He was single, had no job other than writing, and spent most of his time playing video games. (Self admitted) Do I think he will make it long-term as an author? I have serious doubts, he may only make it because of his rather famous mother. Which is something you and I do not have to rely on.
He had the opportunity that we all hope for and he was wasting it because he was unable to have some self push, some commitment to making his deadlines. I decided then and there that I was going to be ready to take on the publishing world; I would be prepared to keep deadlines.
This is how I do it, feel free to steal my ideas!
First decide on how many steps you have till your book is complete. For me, it goes like this.
- Rough draft
- My own revisions
- Send to beta readers
- Revisions from beta readers
- Send to Substantive editor
- Revisions
- Back to Substantive editor
- Revisions
- Send to Copy editor
- Revisions
- Send to proof reader
- Revisions
- Final Pass
Each step takes a certain amount of time. I have a great team now, but it’s taken me a while to put them together. Now they know how I work and what I expect of them and they have an idea of how long I will give them to complete their jobs. I know exactly (or close to it) how long it will take each one to do their job, for whatever size of manuscript I am working on.
Now, I decide what day I want to see my book on Amazon. Or, if you are trying to hit up an agent or be ready for a certain conference that is good too. It doesn’t really matter as long as you have a goal, one that you can’t wiggle out of. Announce it on Twitter, Facebook and your blog. This will help hold you accountable to your deadline.
Let’s say today is January 1st 2011 and you have a conference you want to be at, and you want your new manuscript ready to go by June1st for that conference.
The first thing you’d need to do is take your list of steps, and work them backwards.
June 1st- Final pass finished, Book ready to be pitched.
May 20th- Proof reader’s revisions in my hands
May 10th- Manuscript to Proof reader
May 5th- Second round of revisions done
May 1st- Second round of revisions back from Editor
April 15th- Manuscript to Editor for second round of revisions
April 10th- First round of Revisions back from Editor
March 25th- Manuscript to Editor for first round of revisions
March 15th- Beta reader suggestions back
March 1st- Manuscript to Beta readers
February 28th- Tidy up of manuscript before it goes to Betas
February 20th- Finish first rough draft
January 1st- Start first rough draft.
This is a schedule for something I would do anywhere from 30k words up to 85k words. The trick is to lay it all out, schedule your editors in advance and HOLD to those schedules. Yes, this will mean you will have to sit down, and write every day. By doing this you will create habits that will allow you to keep schedules. Both those you set for yourself and those a publishing house will set for you one day.
At first it may be difficult, painful even, but in the end, when your readers are dancing because it’s only been a few months between books instead of years, it will all be worth it.
[[A side note, but very important. Never let your quality slide. This is where deadlines can be tricky and I mention it because I don’t want people to think I just threw books up on the internet, nor do I think you should either. If the story, writing, plot, characters aren’t good enough, no matter the deadline, the novel shouldn’t be put up or pitched to agents. Period. This is where having people who will be honest with you i.e. paid editors, is so important. They will help you make the decision about readiness of the manuscript. Meeting deadlines IS important, but you still have to reach for the highest quality possible or meeting deadlines won't be your only problem.]]
While Shannon has an agent, she has also self published The Nevermore Trilogy, a series about a post apocalyptic world and a young couple attempting to survive despite dark secrets between them. The release dates for this trilogy were Sundered, Sept 2nd 2011, Bound, Sept 15th 2011, Dauntless, October 31st 2011. She also has plans to release Dark Waters, the 1st book in the Celtic Legacy Series, December 2011 with the following books in that trilogy being released shortly thereafter.
