by: Staci Stallings
Let me be honest up-front. I don’t do deadlines.
I’ve known this about myself for… well, my whole writing “career.”
The thing is, I’m a journalist by trade, so you would think that deadlines would come naturally to me. Oh, how I remember the nights at the paper when I was a campus reporter, pounding out 16-inches of copy because they were going to put the paper “to bed” in 20 minutes, and there was no other choice.
Even back then, my stories, if I had any say in the matter at all, were in two days before deadline. I don’t like the adrenaline and sheer panic of writing on deadline. I don’t like how focused you have to be to get something down and get it shaped into something worth reading on deadline.
I much prefer to have whatever it is FINISHED well before whatever “deadline” is imposed.
So why did I not have my last series finished before I published the first one last May?
Good question.
Okay, in my defense, when I put “Mirror Mirror” up for pre-order in February, a year seemed doable to finish the very last book in the series. I only had one more to write. I should be safe. Or so I thought.
So I put that one out and started writing on the fourth book—Raising Attabury.
It quickly became apparent that Attabury was not going to cooperate. For one thing, there was no way I could just start on Eric and Dani’s story without filling in some major plot points of how we got from Book 3 to Attabury.
Doggedly because I had a deadline, I kept at it, figuring I would just do a short “prologue” about what happened in the between time and move on. Yeah. That didn’t work like I thought it would.
218 pages later… I finally got to Eric and Dani’s story. And it was OCTOBER!
Now, that wasn’t my fault.
In the meantime, I had written two other books I had not planned to write at all!
So, here we are in October with what amounted to a novel of prologue story, and I had just started Attabury. Turns out, I put the bridge book out as “A Moment Like This” in December and all seemed back on track. Except I did not have Attabury finished.
Here is the place I’m saying, “I’m never doing that again!” Because as I was writing Attabury, I was also:
* Running to basketball games two and three times a week with middle daughter. Senior year, don’t you know. I couldn’t miss one!
* Going to band concerts, choir concerts, open house, and every other thing the school came up with for both kids.
* Teaching Sunday School
* Doing a newsletter
* Running two businesses—including all of the January tax stuff like 941’s, W-2’s, W-3, sales tax, etc.
* Normal running of two businesses.
* Oh, did I mention Christmas, New Years, and helping with two retreats?
* And, wouldn’t you know it, in the middle of all of it, I got sick!
So the February deadline that looked so doable last year, suddenly got to be a much bigger challenge than I had anticipated.
There’s a part of me that always wonders if God kind of does this on purpose just so I know for SURE AND CERTAIN that I did not do it! Then I go back and read Attabury, and I KNOW I did not do it!
Not saying I won’t follow God’s lead from here on out because believe me, God’s way works, my way doesn’t. But I’m really, really hoping I never have to do that again because I was definitely not cut out to write that way!
I do hope, my readers enjoy God’s story… because one thing’s for sure, I know I didn’t write that one! And with that said, I now release “Raising Attabury.”
Click here to read more about Raising Attabury!
A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading. Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe with her various Internet and writing endeavors.
Glad you got Raising Attabury out:) Deadlines- a blessing and a curse sometimes!
Blessings:)
I hear you, Staci. Having a project completed well before the deadline is the way I like to work too. Hopefully after tax season, you’re able to slow down a bit.
I have such a love/hate relationship with deadlines. I’m like you, I don’t mind deadlines as long as I can get my project done well before it. But if I’m getting close to it at all, it starts to seriously stress me out. I hope things will slow down a little for you soon, Staci!
I hate deadlines too. I used to always do assignments well in advance and have them ready ahead of time. Then came grad school… first two years were fine, but after that it all snowballed and I ended up writing papers by the deadlines. Then came pregnancy and now I write them past the deadline and ask for extensions all the time. Not to say all my own work that doesn’t have official deadlines (like the book chapters or encyclopedia articles I’m invited to write), those are all postponed too much more than it is professionally healthy to be an active researcher. I’m in the process of thinking of a new life strategy and accepting suggestions! ;)
Well, I’ve heard that if we can manage it on our own, we don’t need God… So maybe He allowed all that to happen so you HAD to depend on Him to get that book written :-)
Cannot imagine what you writers go through re deadlines!!! But sure do enjoy the books y’all write….as I am an avid reader!!! lol
Sounds like Murphy’s Law at work. Lol
Sounds like you and Autumn have had a similar experience recently! Congrats on your new release.
HAHA….deadlines, yeah I know those well!!! I’m not a writer, but other things in my life sometimes sneak up on me too WAY before I’m ready for them! Now that I read & review a lot of books for authors, I have a set schedule for when reviews are due & it seems to work out pretty well. Unless another book gets thrown in the mix unexpectedly, look out, it jams up my schedule worse than rush hour traffic in any major city!! Or some other unexpected life thing happens; ie: getting sick, or any number of things! Somehow it all does get done & I have to give God credit because He works it all out perfectly.
It seems I work better under pressure…haha! ;-)
This resonates. In my family we often say that nothing would get done if not for the last minute.
Sounds crazy, but I’m glad you were able to get it finished in time. While I don’t like leaving things until the last minute, I seem to do it more often than not and then when they don’t get finished on time I get annoyed. But I have no one but myself to blame for that.
I am a constant procrastinator, so deadlines are kind of my friend… They are rather bothersome though. Very excited you got your book out.
I guess I can be too much of a procrastinator and out of no where it comes up and hits me. Ugh. I have even set out with intentions to stay ahead of the game.. but that usually just tricks my brain and I think, “well, I already have so much done. I could pause for a moment.”
Sometimes it sucks being the hare in the race. ?
AMEN to THAT!
I think it will be after graduation of middle child in May though I’m sure I will come up with something to do even then!
Thanks, Melanie! God bless!
I think the biggest thing is priorities though some priorities (like middle daughter being in EVERYTHING!) admittedly encroach on other priorities. But I keep telling myself, “This is only for a season.”
I TOTALLY agree with this point! I KNOW I didn’t write that book. It wasn’t even possible, and even now, thinking back on it, I remember writing it, but I have no good memory of how.
Sure does help to remember I have readers out there who are going to notice if something isn’t out when I said it would be! Thanks for reading!
Murphy and I have a love-hate relationship.
Thanks! Glad to take a breath!
I don’t work very well under pressure. I just wish I had more than 24 hours to get everything I’d like to get done… done!
HAHHA! I understand!
I usually get things done, but I often try to do too much in a certain amount of time!
Thanks on the book! Hope you enjoy it!
HAHHAHAH! Good point!
Love this post. Sometimes we say or think something and God says watch this lol. Love your books!
“Watch this”… story of my life! Hope you enjoy Raising Attabury!
Deadlines make me nervous. I’m the kind of person that when you give me a task I do the job until it’s done. I’m trying to teach me kids to be the same way with their homework. My middle schooler is on his school newspaper team (he mainly writes book reviews, like his mama) and he is learning it’s best not to wait until the last minute.
Amanda