I DON'T WANNA WRITE. OR DO I?

Procrastination? What's that? Oh, you mean like rearranging my office because I don't want to write? Or filing/cleaning out files because I have no idea what my next project will be? Or running off to purchase more supplies instead of, as some expert writers proclaim we should do, sitting at my computer until the muse danced? Or maybe I've taken on so many outside responsibilities in order not to have time to write?

As most writers, I tend to have more fun when I am "in the mood" to write. I am also one of those writers who can produce very well to a deadline so...if I have a special project I really want to complete or keep my novel moving, I type up a deadline schedule for myself and stick it above my computer.

If I am away from my computer and cannot use my laptop, I still work to my deadline. I dig out the pad and one of the ten or so pens I always have at the bottom of my purse, and continue a chapter, work on a character sketch, or draft the next part of my article or a chapter in a nonfiction book. Or work on a lesson plan for one of my classes. The deadline is in my head as I travel and I know I must make up for the time away from the computer in this way.

I've never missed a real deadline or seldom miss self-imposed ones either. So I guess deadlines work for me no matter who gives them.

I have a bi-monthly deadline for my inspirational newsletter and for lesson plans for each of the weekly classes I teach. My self-imposed deadline/promise for the newsletter is to mail it out no later than the firt week of the designated month it is due. I gather all the submissions I've received and chosen and write the fill-in articles to go along with them. Though self-imposed, this is one deadline I won't allow myself to miss by procrastination.