The Importance of Getting Started Early to Meet Deadlines

 

Image Credit: StartupStockPhotos via Pixabay

 

February is such a short month. This was the thought I had at the start of the month. Yes, February may seem like a regular month to some people, but a month can go by fast, which is what this month did.

 

And this is why I started on my February deadlines early.

 

I have an article due at the end of every month, and I have found that if I start working on this article at the beginning of the month, and work on it as often as possible during the month, I will have it ready to submit by month’s end.

 

Recently, I had one month to write an article for Able News. Instead of thinking “Oh, I have time,” I got started on that article ASAP! (That article required interviewing people, so it’s a good thing that it didn’t need to be rushed.)

 

The point is that the shortness of February served as a good reminder to get started on meeting deadlines as early as possible. Instead of thinking “I have a whole month to write that, I have time,” it’s a good idea to get started with writing that thing you have a deadline for as soon as you are able to. Don’t wait your time out. Spend that time doing something proactive in order to meet your deadline. Draft an outline, do some research, start prewriting your piece. Start thinking about your writing project so that you will be thinking about it here and there as the days pass.

 

One other deadline that I have is for a book. Because I would like this book to release in December, the publisher I am submitting it to let me know what month I need to get it to them. Before I received this news, I was hard at work revising this manuscript. When I shared the method I am using to have the manuscript ready in time, the person I shared this with said, “Wow.” He asked why I was doing so much work on it each day and I explained that this method will ensure that I am able to meet the deadline to submit it. It’s a method that works just fine for me, and it’s one I’m glad I started using early because it’s just the right process to meet that deadline.

 

With a gig I had recently (and will have again soon), my deadline to turn in my work was every Monday by 10AM my time. I’d spend the week working on the new assignments I had lined up for me and turn them in on the following Monday. I would wake up early on that Monday (which I started to refer to as “Deadline Day”) and start getting my work sent in first thing. I made it the first task on my list every Monday morning so that I could meet that deadline. (Sometimes, I went without my morning coffee in order to do this!) This practice ensured that I got my work turned in on time every Monday (and so that I could get paid on that same day!). I didn’t sit around and relax on those mornings, thinking, “Eh, I have all the time in the world to meet my deadline.” I really didn’t. So I made it a priority to do that FIRST every time Deadline Day rolled around.

 

If you have a deadline, don’t wait to get started working on it. Start doing what you can to meet that deadline right now, no matter how little that effort may be. Any effort you make to start meeting your deadline will get you on the path toward meeting it, and it is a positive step in the right direction. The time you have available to meet your deadline will allow you the extra time you need in case there are any detours you run into along the way. The best part about starting work on your deadlines early? You just might get your work done early, and have some extra time to make any changes or corrections before your own Deadline Day.

Trying to stay focused

I am not the kind of writer, author, book reviewer, newsletter publisher, columnist or executive editor for a publishing company who works on only one thing every day, or manages just one type of thing every day. Nope, I jump between several tasks throughout my day. This is why I may take a VERY long time to respond to messages and emails. I try to post on social media every day just so people know I’m still alive! Most of the time, though, I am busy doing something else!

 

I usually have a hundred and one things going on at one time and a hundred and one things to do! So in order to get them all done, I’m jumping between them, working on this thing here or writing in a WIP there. My days are filled with me working on these various things, often until 1 or 2 in the morning (last night, it was until 2:30 in the morning!), so in order to try to get as much done as I can on all of my many projects, I am working on them a little bit at a time each day. Even on weekends. (Though “newsletter day” usually takes up ALL of my time on that day! I try to have one day a week where I can indulge in my other interests, like astronomy and the outdoors.)

 

And usually, that works out okay for me. I have no trouble getting right back into the thick of everything once I return my attention to something.

 

But lately, I’ve been trying to get certain things DONE before the month is over. And this has required that I spend a longer amount of time working on them than I would normally do.

 

This has not been easy. While I’m working on one thing, my brain is thinking about other things! I’m thinking about a problem I’m having with a story I’m writing, something to write, something I’ll need to do later, something I’m reading or pondering an article I read. Or I might be thinking about just how long I can go without eating anything while I am busy working! (Sometimes I forget to eat.)

 

Because I keep losing focus on what I am currently working on, I have had to constantly remind myself, “Focus!” If I NEED to get something done, written, turned in or sent, then I absolutely NEED to focus on it! And keep my focus on it!

 

There have been so many times I would stop what I am doing to start writing something, correcting a mistake in something else, or jumping up from my chair to tend to something that has distracted me. I keep trying to put a stop to this, but it is really hard to do.

 

I do get back around to answering messages or posting online or liking posts on Instagram and whatnot. Eventually! I just have to make sure that when I do those things, it’s not keeping me from something else I must be busy working on instead.

Not Another Pandemic Book!: Watch This Space Turned Pandemic Poetry Into a Book of Historical Events

 

When the pandemic hit in 2020 and everybody was on lockdown, it seemed like a lot of people suddenly grabbed ALL of that time they had and used it to write! Or they decided to try their hand at writing and made the leap to write a book. Soon we started seeing poems, essays and even books that were all related to the pandemic in some way.

 

Well, guess what? I was one of those people!

 

For most of 2020, I was working my job as a DSP (Direct Support Professional), which is another term for a caregiver. I supported individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). My job required me to show up during the apocalypse – er, the pandemic, so every morning I had to work, I suited up and shipped out! During most of 2020, I was still suffering from a dry period in my writing. I hardly did any creative writing. Most of my writing was done in daily reports I had to write at work – and, you know something? I think that really helped me to get back into the writing habit!

 

Because soon I was writing poems about things going on all around me.

 

My husband works at a steel mill, so he had the luck of working from home. In fact, with my kids at home since the schools closed, I was the only one leaving the house on my work days! I wrote about this in a poem.

 

And because people were being stopped by the police because they were out and about when everybody was ordered to stay at home, my work reminded all of us to keep our badges with us in our car so we could show it to the police in case we got stopped. Fortunately, I was never stopped! But this fear was something that found its way into a poem I wrote.

 

I also wrote about how, on one evening during the riots after the murder of Jacob Floyd, I was driving through downtown Eugene watching a lot of people causing chaos, holding up signs, yelling and chanting things. (It was scary and I’m glad I made it through that okay!)

 

But the pandemic affected work, too. I wrote all about this in poems.

 

Soon I was writing more than poems and work reports. In October, I opened up a spiral notebook and started writing what would later become a nonfiction book. I stopped writing this book in order to try writing a novel that November, for NaNoWriMo, but only got as far as one chapter. When December rolled around, I got back to work on that nonfiction book, and I finished writing it on Christmas Eve. It was an early Christmas present to myself: A book I had written!

 

I didn’t stop there, though. I decided to take those poems I wrote during the first year of the pandemic (yes, we had more than one year of it!) and decided to write a collection of poems about the pandemic. After I felt this book was complete, I tried submitting it to various publishers. I actually spent a couple of years trying to find a publisher for it, all to no avail. All of the publishers I submitted the manuscript to ended up responding with rejections. It didn't win any of the contests I entered it in, either. I figured that those editors were all tired of the influx of pandemic books the literary community was flooded with and just didn’t want to see mine add to it.

 

So I put that book away for a while and focused on other books.

 

Meanwhile, I continued to write poetry. This time, I wrote poems about current events as well as poems on the theme of loss, grief, friendship and strength.

 

When I found a publisher interested in publishing my longer poetry books, I pulled out that pandemic poetry book and revised it. Instead of containing poems from the first year of the pandemic, I added more poems to it to cover the pandemic AND events going on during 2021 to 2023. I mean, there was A LOT going on both locally as well as nationally, and I wrote all of these poems about them. So I grabbed all of the poems that fell into that category, added them to the manuscript, and sent it off to my new publisher. The book was eventually accepted and Watch This Space has now been published.

 

There are, however, a few poems in this book that were not written during 2020-23.

 

My dad passed away in 2015, after basically drinking himself to death. He had that “one more drink” that killed him, just as my “one more drink” almost killed me. The only difference is that I received medical care when he did not. He died alone inside of a van from a heart attack. For a long time after his death, I was struggling with anger and confusion over why he would do that to himself. But as a former alcoholic, I know the kind of prison that alcoholism can keep us in. That kind of addiction is damn hard to kick for good. The one attempt where I was successful in staying sober was actually my third, so I get it. I understand what alcoholism can do to a person and the lies it tells us in order to get us to keep drinking. Anyway, after the pandemic hit, this struggle turned into a string of questions I kept wondering about, such as this: Did my dad drink himself to death because he knew that the world was basically in chaos? Did he know things were only going to get worse?

 

In one part of the poem “The Question of Why” I wrote about this on page 77:

 

“Did you know

Did you foresee

All the trouble

Ahead? All the chaos

Of a pandemic?”

 

My dad didn’t die during the years covered in this book, but I certainly had to wonder if this was one of the reasons why he had a death wish.

 

I also included the poem “As We Talk” because, interestingly, lockdown actually strengthened communication between a lot of people that normally didn’t communicate with each other very much.

 

And, finally, I also included the poem I wrote decades ago titled “Be Strong, Woman” because of the overturning of Roe vs Wade in 2020. I felt this poem was appropriate to include because, even after 2020, women’s reproductive rights were still being challenged and women were still losing control over what they could do with their bodies once pregnancy was confirmed.

 

Nevertheless, almost all of the poems in this collection are new and were never published. Well, they are now, as part of this book.

 

I like to say that one good thing came out of the year 2020: That while the whole world came crashing down, and after I was about to lose hope, I was able to start writing again. In the chaos of a pandemic, I turned to the one thing that brought stability and joy to my life.

 

But I think a couple of other good things came out of 2020 as well:

 

The chance to know a family better after we offered to help them during those trying times. This was a family consisting of a single mother with three adult children and all of them were immunocompromised (a word we all got to know well during the pandemic!). We either helped them to get food, medication, or assistance through local services. Sometimes we gave them rides or cleaned for them. One person in this family is someone who my oldest had been friends with for years, and in helping them, I got to know her better and she was like a daughter to me. I am grateful I had the chance to get to know this family better thanks to our assistance provided during the pandemic, and this book is actually dedicated to one of them.

 

And the other good thing that came out of 2020? The start of what would be become my pandemic poetry book.

 

Many thanks to Alien Buddha Press for publishing my book! I am so thrilled it is finally in print and out there in the world.

 

Here is the blurb:

 

Through a captivating blend of evocative language and vivid imagery, Colclasure takes readers on a journey through the myriad landscapes of COVID and its impacts on society. From the darkest depths of despair to the radiant heights of joy, each poem in "Watch This Space" is a testament to the resilience of the spirit.

 

With profound insight, Colclasure delves into themes of health, love, loss, hope, and redemption. Whether reflecting on personal struggles or advocating for social change, her words resonate with authenticity and compassion, leaving an indelible impact.

 

"Watch This Space" transcends being a mere collection of poems; it is a profound exploration of the experience amidst a pandemic. With each turn of the page, readers are drawn deeper into the labyrinth of emotion, emerging with a newfound appreciation for the beauty and complexity of a sickness.

 

Here is the buy link

Never Rely on One Source of Income as a Freelance Writer

Here is a personal rule of mine that I had to learn the hard way:

If you are a freelance writer, don’t ever rely on one source of income.

 

That is a mistake I realized I was making after I got back into freelance writing. Of course, that one sources of income ended, and it taught me the importance of having multiple sources of income. Thankfully, it wasn’t too late for me to pull myself up by my bootstraps and find other ways of earning that income as a freelance writer, but it is definitely one lesson I will never forget.

 

If you are a freelance writer, this can be an easy thing to avoid. Unless you are working with a client who demands exclusivity or first review of all of your work (which is another bad idea!), then you have the option of pitching multiple clients for work – magazines, E-zines and websites.

 

I was reminded of this rule recently, when my original source of freelance writing income experienced problems with its website.

 

When I made the decision to go back to working as a freelance writer, I had one problem: I couldn’t remember how to write a query letter! I read several resources about how to write a query letter, but none of them helped jog my memory.

 

Thankfully, a friend of mine was working for a content creation platform, and suggested I join. I applied and was accepted. In that position, I had to write pitches for articles. A tutorial was provided and I followed it to the letter.

 

After a while of writing those pitches, I finally remembered how to write query letters again. Yay! It was I the task of writing those pitches that helped it all come back to me.

 

And while I had a lot of work going on there, I knew it would not last forever. (It didn’t.) So, I got busy doing regular freelance writing again – that is, querying markets and pitching ideas for articles. It helped that I signed up with a newsletter that listed markets looking for writers, as well as checking for calls for pitches on Twitter.

 

And here I am, many months later, still going at it. Even after the work at the content marketing platform dried out, I wasn’t worried, because I had multiple markets to pitch to as well as a small pool of clients to run ideas by.

 

That site I got started at recently experienced a crash, with members unable to log in. I felt bad for all the writers who were a part of that site currently working on projects for their clients, and only hoped that at least they had other sources of income so they can get their bills paid.

 

But that debacle reminded me of me, when I was first starting out there. That was my one and only source of income as a writer. I’m so glad I reminded myself of the importance of having other sources of income before the work ran out, and this site outage only goes to show just how important it is to avoid relying on just that one source.

 

When you are a freelance writer relying on your income to help you buy food, medication, pay bills, etc., then you really can’t have just one client or one source of income. Part of freelancing is the “free” part: You are free to work with other clients and pitch work to other markets. As you should do. If you rely on only one client or one market for your income, and especially with how iffy technology can be, then you are only setting yourself up for trouble if that client or market is unreachable or the website crashes for days. It’s just bad form, so try to have as many clients and different venues of income at the ready as possible. Have telephone numbers and email addresses handy in case you can’t reach clients through a website.

 

Technology is great and all, and there are many websites out there which can help writers to earn a decent monthly income. Just make sure you have a backup plan for keeping that income coming in if that technology isn’t working correctly or websites are down.