What Is It Like To Have A Writing Deadline?

Have you wondered what it’s like to be all in and working towards a deadline with your creative work?

I’m interrupting my series of Getting Started With a Creative Routine to interview Randi Janelle.

I think its better to talk to someone who is in the middle of it, than for me to yak on about what it takes to set boundaries and commit your time.

Randi’s goal is to finish her novel and release it on Halloween, 2015. That’s less than 5 months away.

For anyone who has spent years working on a novel, you know how scary a deadline for it being DONE can be.

For many creatives, getting started and building momentum can be easy, but getting to the finish successfully can be very hard…and scary.

I want to start off by saying thank you to Randi, because she took the time to answer my questions during her very committed time!

To Randi: You’re in the middle of a manic write to a deadline now–what has been the hardest change in your routine?

Sitting, eyes glued to the computer!  Because I teach yoga twice a week, I’m getting out of the house and working at a coffee shop and the studio on those days, so at least I get out of the house a bit.  Though I do like having my space, and there’s a little bit of making notes and transferring them at home once I have the whole of the novels laid out in front of me as usual.

How many hours a day are you writing?

12-14 hours

What have you done that has helped you?

Writing!  I knew this would be the case, because it’s happened before.  Truly, the hardest part is simply starting!  Once I’ve dove into the story, the rest is easy.  It comes and I’m thinking about it constantly and I want to get quickly into that desk chair when I wake up in the morning.  Having the deadline and taking it seriously helps, because people understand that’s where I’m at and they rally along with me.

What helps you stay on track and motivated?

Cutting out other parts of my routine to clear space to write.  The only reason I’m doing this interview is because my day started a little earlier than usual, so I’m taking that time to do this!  Otherwise, my energy is generally LEAVE ME ALONE!!  Haha.  I do have this spacey quality to me now, nutty-professor-esque, and people are getting the vibe that I’m more into my book than listening to them.  After some time, they give up.

I just keep thinking of the big, cold, bubbletastic bottle of champagne we will be drinking once this draft is done.  It will be the first COMPLETED draft of a novel that I’ve ever had.  I’ve written for many years, but with this project in particular, it keeps growing so the finish line has always extended out further.  It will be a serious milestone for me, and the thought of completing a big first keeps me moving!

How do you stay out of becoming overwhelmed and stressing over the looming deadline?

It’s certainly happened.  I’ve had days where I wake up and I prepare these monolgues…I’m sorry, but I just can’t make dinner at all this week, please forgive me, I can’t do chores neither…cue desperate hair-pulling whines.  But then I get to work and the joy of the creative process relaxes me.  By the simple act of it raising my energy, all the stress and worries about what others expect of me fall away.  And then the writing is down and I get ever closer to finishing.

Again, the trick is simply to do what we’re so good at–creating!

How are those around you–family, roomies, friends–reacting to your schedule changes?

Instead of the dramatic monologue, I simply offered to have pizza delivered.  My credit card company’s treat!  Haha.  At this point, time for me is the most precious.

I’m working to finish the first novel in a series of three.  I’ll be releasing it on Halloween, so I am taking note that the release dates of the other novels will be early spring.  So I can play in summer!  I’ve had invites to go float on a river on an inflatable recliner, camping, free concerts downtown, general playing with my friends–all declined so I can finish this.  It hasn’t been easy.  Every time I hope that I’ll get to a certain point so I can play.  But what do they say, genius takes time?  Maybe that’s just what I tell myself.

So yes, I’ve had to combat peer pressure in a way I haven’t experienced since high school.  But it helps me stay resolute: this is important to me; this is my purpose; this is worthwhile.  I would not be enjoying the play, having the deadline poking me with a disapproving frown, anyway.

And, being a dramatic writer, I think… This book, the work that I’m doing right now will last for years, centuries!  I can always float down the river later when the book is in the hands of my editor.  🙂

Thank you Randi!

Besides being a writer with a deadline looming, she is also a performance poet, a photographer and a yoga instructor at Weaverville Yoga. Check out her website and sign up to get in on all the exciting (and non-traditional) goodies she has for her followers as we all wait in anticipatory glee for the release of her first book, The Story on October 31, 2015.