Never Quit

I saw a post in a writers group today asking if the writers felt deadlines were good or bad for motivation. Like any question asked there were split responses. There were a number of people who complained that deadlines put unneeded pressure and stress on their writing which causes the quality of the work to suffer. They said all they had to do was work diligently everyday and the book, poem, or short story would be completed when it was ready.

Then there were people like me who adamantly profess to live by the looming deadline. When there is a timeframe and set structure to follow I am able to focus better. I have always done my best work in the final hours of any project and my recently submitted short story was no different. I entered the NYC Midnight short story competition last year and enjoyed myself so much I couldn't wait to sign up and do it again. This year I got my assignment within an hour of when it was posted but it threw me so much I struggled to figure what I could possibly write about.

I have been trying to come up with any idea for days for my assignment. It wasn't about agonizing over details or obsessing about a character, I just didn't have any ideas at all. After I talked to a friend yesterday I I redeveloped what I was working on to include my elements of the assigned genre. I was still lost for the actual storyline though. I found myself dancing between projects, flipping through social media and reading about several writing styles all because I couldn't make myself concentrate.

Even though the story isn't due until Saturday night I had to complete and submit it today because I work almost non-stop, day shifts and night shifts until Sunday evening. There would have been zero chance of me pushing myself to stay awake after getting out of work at four in the morning to write just to get back out of bed at ten to leave for my other job. Because of that deadline and the whole all or nothing mentality it brought I was able to force my mind to focus, write and edit the piece, send to a beta reader, and ultimately submit it all today.

It is not the story I would have chosen if I had months to research and read in the genre. It is not the character I would have picked without the assignment. I went in a different direction than anyone else I can think of and hope my subject comes through for the contest judges, but the fact of the matter is, I finished. I did my best and was able to create something simply because I pushed myself to try something new and allowed the pressure of the deadline to motivate instead of overwhelm me.