The Word Cloud

At the moment I feel like my life is made up of a series of deadlines. Deadlines for short stories, deadlines for finishing a big edit of my MS, deadlines for my driving theory and deadlines for my master’s dissertation.

Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines. It’s enough to give me an ulcer.

In order to try and prepare myself to reach these deadlines I have put together a few helpful tips on how to cope with an impending deadline and thought I would share.

·         Break it down – every giant job can be broken down into a series of smaller jobs. This will make it easier to manage and you will feel more in control and successful when you finish a job.

 

·         Reward yourself – when you finish a small job reward yourself. This will help to keep you motivated and feel under less pressure.

 

·         Keep a clear list of where you are and where you need to be. – stay updated on your progress especially if you’re juggling multiple deadlines. This can also be called a timeline.

 

·         Plan your time – ties into the above point but it is important enough to be a standalone point as well. Careful planning of time means less chance of a meltdown later. Keep these plans fluid though as sometimes life happens and you can’t always stick to rigid plans.

 

·         Always keep a backup – this isn’t just for deadlines and is a good tip in general. Back everything up. Then if your computer explodes you’re not back at square one with the deadline much closer.

I hope these tips help you with your deadlines.

Anything to add please do!

I have a deadline. I always seem to have one, but this one, although 20 months away has become more real lately. I've mentioned it before, but I have to write a piano concerto for a performance in May 2013. That's 20 months away, but the orchestra will start rehearsing in March of that year, so that's minus three months (17), and it will probably take a couple months to set the parts (15). Sounds luxurious, still. Except that it is a concerto, and the soloist will probably want the music a year in advance of the performance. That means the piece needs to be in a final form by May 2012. (Ding!) Eight months.

I've restarted the piece five times, and in the end, I gave up and arranged another piece with a prominent piano part (that was unfinished) into the hulk of my concerto. I'm not sure that works, but it will have to. My other fall-back plan was to arrange a piano solo piece for piano and orchestra. That probably would have been easier, but less satisfying in the long run. It is still an option if I get in a panic.

Combine that with a potential move back to the US, and that's where unease becomes terror. I've got to finish the piece, pack up 22 years of accumulated junk, move, unpack, set up my office, and possibly teach two theory courses. (Oh, and sell the house and find a new one.)

That, in part, might explain why you haven't see much of me here lately. I just don't have the stomach for another rewrite of Mirror, Mirror right now. Instead, I have been spending my time writing as my alter-ego, finishing the first draft of "her" first completed novel, which is receiving excited responses from my readers.

While I'm awaiting detailed comments, am I writing as myself again? No. I'm still writing as her. She is writing a fake blog on a forum. (Everyone knows it is fake ... but not a fake blog written by a fake person ... although they do know she doesn't write under her real name.) I have assigned myself a minimum of 500 words per day, and it will probably be 79 installments (based on the meme for each installment), unless I get bored with it. (Her followers aren't, so far.) I'll probably end up with 50K words that I won't know what to do with at the end.

I'm not sure what to do. I write more freely under her name. Anything with my name on it becomes self-conscious, lacking her cynicism and frivolity. The wit might still be there, but I feel like I need to be a little more serious because someone is going to judge me by it. (My wife, my friends, my parents ... I'm sure you all know that feeling.)  She can be sappy and romantic or over-emotional, but I have to reign it in.

I suppose I could just wait it out. Finish the concerto, the rewrite of her book (how do I query it? *bangs head*), and write her out of my system until I can get back to Mirror, Mirror or one of my unfinished sci-fi extravaganzas. (Mirror, Mirror might be fatally flawed.)

Or maybe I should just "out" her and resign from all the forums she frequents. *shudders* (She's very popular ... unlike me.)