How To Finish Writing Projects: Give Yourself Deadlines
Deadlines have helped me complete a few writing projects recently!
This month, I entered a couple of writing contests. I’m mostly keeping that fact to myself (except here — I’m spilling the beans to all of you!) but it feels exciting.
Not because I think I’m going to win anything, but because I took my work seriously. I completed a few pieces, and shared them, offered them up for critique and consideration. I said, I made this, what do you think of it?
Now, I’m not planning on entering anymore anytime soon. I think that frankly I was a little rushed in completing for the sake of meeting a deadline, and I’m going to take some time now to further refine, and work on some new things. But I’m glad I did it — I don’t think I would’ve finished any of those pieces without the deadlines.
I also know I have a tendency to never think anything is finished, good enough, as good as it could be.
And maybe nothing ever is, but at some point we have to call it done and move on to something else.
I’m proud of myself for my finished pieces. I worked hard on them. It felt good, and intoxicating to be so engaged in the creative labor of making a whole thing from my imagination. I’m going to use that momentum to keep writing and creating more.
Why is art?
Lately I’ve been thinking about the value and the meaning that sharing art gives to art.
Does art need to be shared to be meaningful, to be art?
Isn’t the point of art to connect and reflect our existence, our humanity?
Or does art have, require, a point?
Maybe the answer comes down to what you need from your art at the time. For most of life I’ve just needed to make it. Lately I feel called to share it.
Do the fucking work
I saw Patti Smith in concert recently and she talked about William Blake. Blake died penniless, with his work largely unrecognized. He is now considered a seminal figure, revered for his art. Patti Smith’s point was that he never thought of himself as a failure. He just, as she put it so perfectly, did the fucking work.
Entering a few writing contests was yet another tool I’ve used recently to jump start my initiative and commitment to completing creative work. (I’ll caveat this by saying it cost a little money up front to enter. If that’s not currently in your budget, or you just aren’t ready to do that yet, there are free contests out there, including many on Medium! Or you can always choose other ways to give yourself deadlines.)
For the foreseeable future, I intend to just keep grinding away at my desk. Or a coffee shop. Or my backyard. Wherever.
And having spent more time doing just that lately, “grinding” isn’t the right word. It’s pleasurable work, even though it is work. And I’m more keen than ever to do it.
Let me know in the comments what tools you have used to motivate yourself with writing goals! I’d love to hear from you.