“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” - Douglas Adams

Most writers have a hard time being productive without a concrete, meaningful deadline staring them in the face. And, when it comes to deadlines, the meaningful word is ‘meaningful’.

"I want to have a draft by the end of next month,” is not a meaningful deadline. “I have to have a draft by the end of next month,” is no more meaningful, no matter how hard you underline or italicize it, unless the date is attached to REWARDS and/or CONSEQUENCES.

A meaningful deadline is a specific date in the forseeable future when you’re answerable to someone and have to deliver something.

5 Ways to Impose a Self-Imposed Deadline

Writing can hard, frustrating and often maddening, but if you're clear on your motivations it can help get you through a rocky patch.

Different writers write different projects for different reasons. No reason is wrong and any one or combination can get you going. Why are you writing what you're writing?

18 Reasons Writers Write

1) Creative Rapture
2) Share Information
3) Make Money
4) Make Your Mark on the World
5) Change the World
6) Therapy/Self-Knowledge
7) Requirement/Assignment
8) Tell Your Side of the Story
9) Sense of Accomplishment
10) Everyone Tells You You Should
11) No One Else is Doing It
12) Professional Credit/Advancement
13) Obsessed with Project or Topic
14) Shame & Self-Loathing of Not Writing
15) Find Out How the Story Ends
16) Help Others
17) Not Qualified to do Anything Else
18) Stop Talking About It and Finally Do It

I’m sure there are others too, and it's always a good time to think about your genuine motivation(s) for writing. The clearer you are about your goals, the better you can design your Project to meet them. Of course you can change or amend your goals later, but this seminal manifesto can also help guide your work and serve as a touchstone to re-visit if the Project gets off-track later.

ADVISORY: If you can’t answer one or both questions, don’t worry about it, just keep going with your project anyway.

For more useful tips, check in with writing coach & consultant Greg Miller. Call him directly at 323-717-4731 to get more useful advice for your project.

Asking for help with your writing is NOT ADMITTING FAILURE, it's part of doing everything you can to succeed, a way of getting perspective on yourself and your work so you can see more clearly.

Every single writer I know (and I know a lot of them) gets advice, notes, feedback and perspective from someone - usually from several people - on every draft, or in mid-draft if they hit a snag, lose momentum, lose heart or lose perspective. It's a natural part of the process because you inevitably get lost in the trees in the course of any long-form writing project and need an outside eye to help you see the forest.

Of course you don't want to pay for someone else's perspective or advice, you want it for free! And you've probably gotten a lot of free advice already, but if you're reading this, you're at least considering hiring a professional.

And that is tricky because a writing coach is some combination of producer, editor, therapist, cheerleader, strategist, market watcher and psychic advisor each with their own style and bag of tricks.

Let's start with how you know when you really need a writing coach or consultant?

Don't let another season slip through your fingers!

Greg is offering a SPRING FORWARD SUPER SALE on his creative consulting. Get 12 hours for the price of 10 and commit to weekly check-ins for the next 3 months while you...
Draft your script
Write your show
Outline your book
Finish a book proposal
Create your online profile
Transform your standup act

Veteran screenwriter, story editor, teacher and writing coach Greg Miller will get your creative work on track with concrete suggestions, fresh perspective, strategic planning and regular deadlines.

"It's like magic!" - Parker (outlined and drafted article)

If you have material you've already generated, e-mail your pdf or link(s) or mail to: 137 N. Larchmont Blvd. #107 LA CA 90004. Greg is an expert reader and will help you focus the project, re-ignite your excitement for the material and chart a course to a finished draft (or performance).

"Terrific insights!" - Noah (re-wrote a script)

If you don't have any material generated... then you really need to saddle up and get started. Call Greg directly at 323-717-4731, explain your particulars and schedule your first session today.

OK, maybe you had some trouble getting started, but now you're beginning to generate material.

Or maybe you're a natural generator, or even an over-producer, and you have too much material.

Is it all even part of the same project? Maybe it’s several different projects. Congratulations, you've just hit Hurdle #2: defining the parameters of your writing project.
 
If your problem is: “I can’t choose between several possible projects”...

There are several hurdles that almost every writer has to get past in almost every writing project; scripts, books, plays, or even a substantial essay or article.

As a writing coach I've helped many writers and talented would-be writers get over – or around – these hurdles. I've also written over a dozen scripts myself – plus many projects that never got finished because of one or more of these stumbling blocks.

Webster's defines a 'hurdle' as: “an artificial barrier over which racers must leap”. I think the key here is remembering they're artificial blocks, usually psychological, and they're almost always put in your way by you. Of course, they seem - and act - pretty real.

HURDLE #1: GETTING STARTED

You might be one of the lucky ones who has no trouble here. If so you've probably gotten started on way too many projects. If you’re one of those people, you can skip directly to the second hurdle. But if you’re having trouble getting going it’s probably due to one of the following reasons:

“I’m too busy with other things!” aka “I can’t find the time!”

Solution #1:

Over the years, we've developed a number of techniques to take some of the pain out of the rewrite process. It's inevitably going to be a little painful,  because you have to confront the fact that you're writing isn't perfect. Yet.

Beth just sent me this quote about the creative process from Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Easy reading is damn hard writing".

I use these techniques when I work as a writing coach for private clients. We also use them, and others like them, at The Comedian's Way Workshop for Writers, Performers and Other Humans (next class this Sunday, Nov. 1, 1-4pm at M Bar in Hollywood).

There's nothing magic about any one of these. The point is to make a game of the rewrite to keep yourself from taking it so seriously that you get blocked. I realize some of these are going to be way too cutesy, or too woo woo, for some of you serious writer types. Maybe you'll feel differently the next time you're in the middle of a pit of rewrite despair and considering slitting your wrists.