Diane Report:
Number of pages written since past rant of one week ago: 32
Daily average: 4.5
Daily goal: 10 pages
Number of pages to go: 158
New Daily Goal: 12 pages
Deadline: June 2
Arrrrrgggghhhhhhh!
Good news! I have my new contract in hand. More books. More deadlines…………….
Investigation:
This is the book Amanda said she pines for. She mentioned it in Megan’s Friday post.
Doesn’t this look like Amanda?
(photo of Amanda from our Williamsburg trip)
Amazing!!!
I’ll be back on Saturday – substituting for Amanda. I’ll give you another update then–on my deadline, not on Amanda.
(Why did I ever get myself into this tight deadline–do you all get yourself into things like this deadline dilemma I’ve gotten myself into?)
Wow, that is quite a resemblance!
I used to get into trouble with deadlines by not estimating all I had to do. More recently I’ve improved my estimating but gotten into trouble because I didn’t budget in a bit of sick time for myself and my kids. Maybe sometime I’ll have it all figured out so I don’t get so stressed. Or maybe not! Maybe a bit of adrenalin is healthy.
Hang in there–you’ll make it!
Ha! I look like Eleanor of Toledo! 🙂
I do get into deadline dilemmas sometimes–I only think of all I WANT to do, not really what is sensible. But it always works out. (I have to do 3 books and the novella before April 2009–I find a quote from “Finding Nemo” helps: “Keep swimming!”)
Wow, Diane, just reading your sched makes me anxious.
I do what Elena used to do–underestimate what has to be done. I always think I can do it all, not counting in rest, and tea breaks, and emergency stuff and all that.
And Amanda looks so darn cute!
And it is now 2:30 pm and I’m just back from Critique Group and I still have my 12 pages to write.
I still think I can do it. I’ve asked for extensions on the last two books and I don’t want to ask for one on this one!
ALL THE TIME! Especially with my our annual fundraiser coming up. Which remindsw me, I have to trot over to Brenda Novak’s site.
However, I find that I need a deadline or, at least, someone to hold me accountable. I’ll be doing that at my next chapter meeting.
Good luck with your page counts. When does the emergency chocolate supply get whipped out?
Amanda, project! Perhaps next year we will see you kitted out in that outfit.
Diane, my fried, wish you all the very best of good writing mojo. Any time you want cyber arm-twisting and guilting, let me know. You are one of the most hard-working person I know. You’ll make this happen.
I first had trouble with double (and triple) scheduling in high school… I would get so happy that my two weeks of winter break were coming up that I would schedule:
1) two weeks of rest, relaxation, fun reading, movies, etc
2) two weeks of studying for finals
3) two weeks to write my research paper
4) two weeks to catch up on undone things
etc etc etc…
And every time I’d be surprised when two weeks wasn’t enough time to do eight weeks’ worth of activities! 🙂
I do *try* to be more sensible now… 😉
Cara
When will I learn? I set these deadlines myself!
Diane (who just went grocery shopping, now it is 4:33 and still no pages written)
Poor Divine One. How do you do it? I do get myself into deadline situations all the time. I have gotten myself into a doozy! I entered the first fifteen pages of my new WIP The Hedgehog (Now known as The Raven’s Heart, but that is another story)in the Daphne du Maurier historical category. It is a Gothic Regency romance. I just wanted to see what people thought! Well, guess what? It made the finals! I am stunned. So I had to send the first 30 pages and a synopsis for the final judge. Here’s the deadline part. Those 30 pages I sent are all I have of this book! So now I have until Nationals to polish and revise one book and write and finish another. EEEEEEEK!! Last time I enter something just to see if it will fly!
Poor Divine One. How do you do it? I do get myself into deadline situations all the time. I have gotten myself into a doozy!
Well, I haven’t succeeded yet, O Doggie One. But I’m still hopeful. I just have to DO it. And so do you! I hate to complain because this is the life I wanted!
So very true, O Divine One. This is what I have always wanted so I just have to plop my butt in the chair and write. That is what it is all about!
I got my Marlene certificate and judges’ sheets today. Really great critiques and gave me some terrific ideas about my revisions. THAT is what I enter contests for – for those observations or little things that someone says that spark great ideas!
I am off tomorrow so I have to go shopping for a frame for my certificate. 🙂
And Amanda, I LOVE that quote from Nemo! That’s what I intend to do – Keep Swimming!
I usually make deadlines. Barely. I suppose they help focus one’s energies. But in my experience, even though I usually make the deadline, it means that the stress persists for a while afterwards while I frantically try to catch up with everything I put off in order to make the deadline.
Oh, well. That’s life in the big city, I guess.
Todd-who-lives-in-a-medium-sized-city-next-to-a-big-city-to-be-totally-accurate