DEADLINE WRITER

It amazes me that last November, when I took on the thirty day blogging assignment, I actually wrote something every single day--week days, weekends, through the holiday with houseguests--I wrote something every day. And further to my own amazement, some of them were fairly “substantial” pieces.

However, as soon as November was over, it was like one of the Macy Day balloons--like someone let all the air out. I was full and inspired, right up there flying high all November. And then, whoosh, December 1st, the party was over. No inspiration, not a thought in my head worthy of adding two or three words together to express. Zip.

And, more or less, it’s been like that ever since. I try to get myself going. I sign in, go out and begin reading others’ blogs, and commenting on others’ blogs--and there goes my day, there goes my time on the computer, and I haven’t created one single paragraph for my own blog.

Heaven forbid, but I’m beginning to wonder if I should have taken on the new expanded NaBloPoMo 365--writing daily for the year.

It seems I need deadlines. I need writing assignments. Mostly I need an editor who says “write this, have it on my desk by this” and then hangs up on me, or swivels their chair around and all I see is the back of their head and a perfunctory wave of their hand dismissing me from the room. OK, I might have made that last part up . . .

Never-the-less, I am often astonished how completely focused I become as the days dwindle down to hours, and the hours to AN hour--just focused, creative, words flowing . . . And I always read the thing thinking “now if I’d just had a wee bit more time, I could have done this, or I could have added a great quote, or . . . “ but of course, there was no more time was there!

Perhaps like the drunk at the party who, in his/her impaired condition, thinks ALL his/her jokes are hilarious, I’m convinced I do my best writing under these eleventh hour writing jags because that’s almost always how I allow Murphy’s Law to affect my time: A task will automatically fill all the available time--whether two minutes or two hours or two days.

And how about you, my fellow bloggers? Are you deadline writers--or are you all organized, topics for the week picked out, a time lined up for your writing, editing? Pages in the hopper, waiting for posting? Come on, you can tell me.