Tips for Writers—When Deadline Madness Descends

by Linda Gilden @LindaGilden

I’m coming down the home stretch on a book deadline. A book that I have loved writing. A book that has consumed my life for a month. A book that I will be able to proudly share with you sometime after Christmas.

Book deadlines are not without sacrifices no matter how passionate you are about your subject. There is only one way to meet that deadline and that is to sit in the chair in front of the computer and write. It takes discipline to find that “chair time.” Choices have to be made about how to spend your time and those choices are sometimes hard.

During the last two months of writing this book I have had to forego social events, miss a few soccer games or swim meets, and eat out more than usual. But a book deadline is not the end of family time and social events for life.

With careful planning, you can survive the writing of your book with family and friends intact. 

Tips for Deadline Madness

• Tell those around you that you have an important deadline and will be spending more time at the computer than usual.

• Be present at special family times during your writing blitz. Birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations are special lifetime events.

• Plan your writing by giving yourself a daily word count and sticking as closely as possible to it. However, don’t be too hard on yourself when you miss your goal a day or two. You will catch up before your deadline.

• Know there are going to be some days that totally get away from you. If you have an unplanned family distraction, take time to do what is needed for your family. If you are trusting God with your writing career, He will help you redeem the time you pull away for your family

• Pray. As you follow God’s leading in writing your book, you may be surprised to find some new things He teaches you personally that become part of your book.

• Remember to appreciate those who are helping you meet your deadline in ways other than words. Husbands who bring dinner home, do the laundry, and take the kids to movie so you can have a quiet house. Children who play quietly while you finish the last page of a chapter. Friends who pray for you and occasionally drop by with an ice cream cone or cookies.

• Realize that writing this book is an act of worship. You are giving back to God the talent that He has given you. Enjoy the fellowship with Him as you write. Make your writing gift back to God an excellent one.

Writing a book is hard work. But it is well worth the sacrifice of time and sleep and the victory that results from the constant hunt for that perfect word!

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Linda Gilden is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She loves to take one subject and create multiple articles from that information. Linda finds great joy (and lots of writing material) in time spend with her family. Her favorite activity is floating in a pool with a good book surrounded by splashing children.

To find out more about Linda, her writing, and her ministry, visit www.LindaGilden.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.