I’m in Atlanta today giving a speech at a conference managers of independent Christian bookstores. Since all of my time and energy has been focused on composing it over the past several days, and since I won’t have internet access for about thirty-six hours, I thought I’d share the contents of the speech over the next few days. Hope you enjoy! I’ll let you know how it went when I get home!

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Living by Deadlines
In addition to setting and making goals, another very important lesson I learned working in the sales industry is that I work better with deadlines. There’s something about the adrenaline that comes from knowing a deadline is looming that sparks my energy and my creativity to get a job done. In the newspaper industry, those deadlines were a daily taskmaster. In many other industries, it’s a weekly, monthly, or quarterly due date that must be met. In writing, deadlines can loom five, six, nine, or twelve months—or more—away.

True confessions time. When I was in school—at least, before I went back as an adult learner who was working fulltime and attending school part-time—I was the kind of student who put off starting a paper until just a couple of days before it was due, and usually ended up pulling an all-nighter to get it finished on time. In my writing life, I would set deadlines for myself as to when I would have a manuscript finished, but because it was just me and some arbitrary date I’d set, it didn’t matter if I met it or not, right?

I know that most unpublished authors absolutely dread one thing when it comes to the dream of being published: deadlines.

Not me. I was thrilled to have deadlines imposed on me by someone else. You see, while I’m not good at meeting deadlines I set for myself, working as I did for so many years in an environment driven by goals and deadlines created in me a deep-seated determination to never miss a deadline. Part of that is my desire to please those in positions of authority over me; but another part of it is the pride and senses of achievement and confidence that come from completing a project and getting it turned in when—if not before—expected. I would never call myself an overachiever (though some others have)—simply because I know myself too well for that. I would call myself driven, determined, and deadline-oriented. You give me a deadline, I’ll meet it! Even if it means I have to spend an entire month—as I just did in June—focused on nothing but getting a manuscript finished so that I could turn it in by deadline. And I mean focused—I think I only left the house maybe six or seven days the entire month. But there was no way I was going to miss my deadline. And through hard work, determination, and my first all-nighter since finishing grad school, I met my deadline.

The actor Val Kilmer said: “Without deadlines and restrictions, I just tend to become preoccupied with other things.”

How true that is! Without deadlines, as well as goals, how easy it is to lose focus on what we’re doing and let the little things distract us. . .oh, look, something shiny! There are so many things both at work and at home that can distract us from the job we’re supposed to be doing if we don’t have those deadlines looming ahead of us—whether it’s family, friends, hobbies, our favorite TV shows, our Netflix subscription, computer games, or whatever. I’ve even been known to do something disgusting, like cleaning the house, instead of writing when I’m supposed to.

I just turned in the manuscript for A Case for Love, the third book in my series with Barbour (due out in February 2010, by the way), on July 1, and my next book, the second in a historical series with Harvest House, isn’t due until December 1. So you’d think I’d be able to take it easy for a while, just focus on my freelance editing work and setting up lunch appointments with friends, right? While that would be wonderful, and while I did take off several days this past weekend and did nothing writing-related, I know that if I’m going to meet that December 1 deadline, I have to work every single day on that manuscript. So I’ve set daily goals of writing an average of 1,500 words every single day—or about 10,000 each week—so that I can have the first draft finished before the first of October to give myself time to check my research, get feedback from beta readers, and make all the necessary changes so that I can turn it in before I leave for Arkansas for Thanksgiving—so that I can enjoy my holiday with my family. So even though that deadline is five months away, I have to live like I did back when I worked for the newspaper: like I have daily deadlines that must be met. Otherwise, it’s far too easy to go chasing after all those “shiny object” and forget to do what I’m supposed to be doing.

So try to do what I do—don’t look at a deadline as something dreadful and oppressive, look at it as God’s way of making sure we stay focused on the task we’ve been called to complete.