{"id":3560,"date":"2014-07-06T21:02:37","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T01:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=3560"},"modified":"2014-07-11T15:58:25","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T19:58:25","slug":"writing-deadline-vs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/the-vault-of-dreamers\/writing-deadline-vs\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing for a Deadline vs. Not"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3562\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3562\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3562\" src=\"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/View-e1404694605448.jpg\" alt=\"A sunny bay through the trees.\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view from my window for the next week.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I met Kate Jacobs twice in passing before she became my editor, but I only met her for real as my editor a week ago when I was out in Las Vegas for ALA. She\u2019s a warm, fabulous person, and we had a lovely long talk together face to face. She asked at one point if she could do anything to help me with the first draft I\u2019m writing for Vault of Dreamers Book 2, and I said she\u2019d already helped. She\u2019d given me a deadline.<\/p>\n<p>For the record, I like writing without a deadline. It gives me the freedom to explore ideas and ponder a novel-in-progress in a deep, curious way. I can let my subconscious worry out loose ends and come up with solutions. I can balance the writing with time for my family and friends in a way that feels whole and rich.<\/p>\n<p>But with a deadline, I\u2019m a different writer, both better and worse. I\u2019m essentially given permission to be obsessed. I can neglect everything and everyone else in my life and sit in a chair for 12 or more hours a day drilling out words and brainstorming ideas. I know I\u2019m writing a first draft that\u2019s awful, but it gathers bulk and collects a dust storm around it, and all the while, in the back of my mind, a voice is saying, <em>this is due Friday<\/em>. I <em>can\u2019t<\/em> care how bad it is. There isn\u2019t time. It might sound counter-intuitive, but for creativity, little is more freeing than a deadline.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s key that I trust my editor. If I didn\u2019t, frankly, I\u2019d ask for an extension so I could bang this novel into better shape. I\u2019d never risk the embarrassment of sending in something so raw. But since I do trust her, I\u2019ll get Kate\u2019s input early in the creative process, and I just know that will help.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the point is to write the best book I can. A deadline is simply another tool to get me there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I met Kate Jacobs twice in passing before she became my editor, but I only met her for real as my editor a week ago when I was out in Las Vegas for ALA. She\u2019s a warm, fabulous person, and we had a lovely long talk together face to face. She asked at one point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-3560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-vault-of-dreamers","tag-writing-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3563,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions\/3563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}