Shellee Cruz

Since I jumped the razor-wire fence and made good my escape from Cubicle Nation there’s not much about my term there that I’ve missed.  Except deadlines.

I really miss having concrete deadlines looming on the horizon.  They give you impetus to get your work done, and barring that, at least you know ahead of time you won’t be sleeping the night before.  I did some of my best work at 3 AM surviving on Dublin Dr. Pepper, beef jerky and tropical fruit Skittles.

So, as an unpub who has elevated procrastination to an artform on par with Michelangelo’s David and the Ghent Altarpiece, I yearn for a deadline (and maybe a GANTT chart, but that’s a different post).

What’s that you say?  Set a deadline and stick to it? If only it were that easy.  Alas, as you other unpubs out there know, it’s not.  I have set dozens, if not hundreds, of arbitrary deadlines that have come and gone (See New Year’s Resolutions).  The problem is a lack of negative reinforcement.  At work there are repercussions for being late on delivery – criticism, loss of respect by your peers, loss of bonus money, etc.  If I don’t finish this book by the end of this month, the end of this year or the end of this decade, nobody cares.  Except maybe my critique partners who are as tired of this book as I am.

But, I have found a champion to help me with this fatal flaw.  My friend Tracy Wolff, who has a real deadline on April 1st for a single title, has thrown down the gauntlet.  A race to see who can finish first.  I’ve got about 20,000 words to go and 20 days to do it.  Yes, I can!

(Who am I kidding?  I’m screwed.)

I will give it the ol’ college try – except really try this time.  It could be worse, I guess.  Our ARWA compadre, the fabulously talented, multi-genre, multi-published Julie Kenner has four books due in May. FOUR!  I should be careful what I wish for.  I’ll send you a case of tropical fruit skittles, Julie.  They really work.