As I come up on my April 1 deadline, more and more things go by the wayside. I’m trying to keep balance, but seriously? Editing or taxes? Editing or blogging? Editing or the gym?
After that deadline, I’ll take a day off to do some personal stuff, but then I have to dive right back in to Portugal and start on Book 3. I have 9 months to do that….no problemo, right?
Well, it’s not really nine months. Somewhere in there I’ll get a set of proofs for Book 1. I’ll probably have to edit Book 2 twice….at least. That takes time away from the writing. And I have cons to go to, plus the DFW Writer’s Conferenece coming up fast.
And then there’s real life: the yard, the house, the dogs, the husband.
Back in the dark ages before I had a book contract, I watched my friends and aquaintances get contracts, and suddenly their blogging fell off, they started working through cons instead of hanging out at the bar, and they suddenly disappeared into a black hole where none of their former social ties could reach them.
Now I’m in that black hole myself. I had such good intentions of keeping up with everything. But I feel underwater half the time these days.
I suppose one day writers get accustomed to working with deadlines. I just haven’t reached that point yet.
Do you work under contract deadlines? Does it make it easier or harder?
The only time contract deadlines bother me is when I’m working with multiple publishers that change their editing time frame and it jams things up.
Yeesh! That’s gotta be rough ;o)