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On Being Accountable

January 30th, 2008

There’s nothing like a deadline to make people get something done, or to freak out over. When you’re just starting as a writer, with no deadlines or agents or editors looking over your shoulder, you don’t have any deadlines. Not really. And not having a deadline is a great excuse to futz around and not get anything done. I mean, it’s not like we’re at work and our boss is breathing down our necks.

Write To Done has a great article today about how to deal with the lack of externally-imposed deadlines (and thus give yourself motivation to write): make yourself accountable.

So what does this mean?

It means you make your own deadlines, and you do your best to stick to them. Get someone else involved, like a friend (or members of a writing group) and make them the boss. No, I don’t mean make them give you deadlines, or even really to check your work. Set yourself a deadline, tell your friend when you plan on having it done, and then make sure you get it done - or have a valid reason why not.

And don’t set goals that are too far away. Saying “I want to have the book done by November 1st” is a great goal, but you’ll be setting yourself up for failure if that’s the only goal you have. Set yourself deadlines that are no more than two weeks away, and make them into smaller, more manageable chunks. For example, Chapter 12 of TMA is to be completed by Friday, February 1st. That is an attainable goal. And yes, I know I probably won’t get it done until Monday the 4th, but my goal is still to get it done by Friday.

The other important thing is to set some defining feature for your task being “done”. I don’t consider a chapter done until it’s been posted to my writing group. If I consider them to be my “boss”, the job isn’t done until the boss can see it.