"Deadlines are deadlines."

One of my first writing gigs was the high school newspaper.  In fact, my second regular writing job was the college newspaper.  When you are assigned a story, or your pitch is accepted, one of the things you are assigned is a deadline.  There's a reason for that.

Writing for publication does no good until it's published.  And very few -- might as well call it none -- will put out their wares without a target date.  Now deadlines can be missed ... and we'll go over that a little later.

(if you aren't assigned a deadline, be nervous.  Very rarely will an editor assign a piece without a deadline unless that person wants filler for when someone else can't come through.  If you are contracted for filler, that's okay, I guess ... but your piece doesn't elicit the love it should from your editor and might get lost in the shuffle.  I submitted an article to someone I still do business with as a transcriber and he said he'd use it when he got space ... and we've never spoken of it since as if it was an experience shared in a seedy bar that we'd never mention to each other again.  So demand some love of your own and go for a deadline commitment)

Some writers love deadlines -- I'm one of them.  Given that I come from a foundation of newspaper work, it's good to have a target to complete the task or else it might never get done.  There's too many pages on Facebook to examine, too many hours of Jerry Springer to watch, too many comic books to read, so knowing that a piece has higher priority is a good thing.

Plus, the prospect of a deadline helps me to focus, almost as much as a word count.  I've been told (read: accused) that if someone asked me for the time, I'd relate the history of clock making.  Mea culpa.  Anyway, without the limitations of a word count and more importantly, a deadline, I'd prattle on endlessly, drowning you in the width and breadth of my knowledge ... whether you wanted it or not.

Also, there's something about the ticking of the deadline clock that seems to unlock the best writer in me.  I am forced to prioritize my research time and maintain my subject focus.  Also, I don't overthink the article or story, which sometimes leads to questioning my writing choices.

When you make your deadline, it also marks you as a go-to person.  Editors appreciate people who make their lives easier.  Turning in your work on -- or better yet, ahead of -- schedule shows you possess a professional attitude and a commitment to meeting your editor's goals, the primary one of which is getting the magazine (whether online or old school paper, glue, and staples) out in a timely manner.

In regular print, a whole line of people are waiting for you to submit your writing.  The editor knows he or she will require some time to edit your script, even if your prose is flawless and your research golden.  A graphics person might be waiting to lay out and design your article.  An artist might be drumming his fingers, knowing that every minute he waits is putting off other drawing assignments and waiting on you is losing him money.  The printer checks the calendar, knowing your publisher has booked time on the presses.  The publisher seethes, knowing anything that delays the publication could cost him in late printing fees.  A distributor years for your work to be delivered so he can dole out copies to book stores, supermarkets, and other outlets and hope to sell enough to justify your rack space.  The retailer wants to make money from your work and in some cases, that storeowner has already paid for your books and wants nothing more than to recoup his/her investment.

Even more than all that, a reader is waiting to take in the fruits of your creativity.  If your work is accepted by a periodical, the steady release of that magazine/newspaper gives the buyer a reason to enter a store where they might buy even more.  If the periodical doesn't hit the stands at the promised time, the buyer loses faith in the magazine and may wind up spending money on something else.  So when your publication finally hits the stands, the dough may not be budgeted for the purchase.

So it's not just you.  A whole line of people will be affected by your ability to meet a deadline.  It's not quite so critical online where many deadlines are pretty fluid.  But if it runs through a regular press, you should adhere to your promised deadline as closely as you can.  And even your work won't be immortalized in ink on dead trees, delivering your work on time, as I said earlier, shows you have the right stuff to make an editor's life easier.

And now that I've (hopefully) demonstrated how vital deadlines are, my next blog will ed-u-ma-cate you on when it's understandable to blow a deadline, how to not annoy your editor any more than you need to when you do, and why some deadlines are more rigid than others.  I'll also tell you what made me think of deadlines ... because I skipped one too.

If you have any comments on this blog, feel free to leave them below.  Or else you can drop me a note at bkmorris56@gmail.com.  So discuss, already ...