The contract that I signed with Manning has five deadlines for various stages of the book. These deadlines are: 1) the first chapter, 2) 1/3 of planned pages, 3) 2/3 of planned pages, 4) completed manuscript, and 5) final revised manuscript. This last deadline is January 12, 2015.
Working under a deadline is something I’m familiar with. I spent five years working as a technical consultant, and I often juggled deadlines across different projects. Going all the way back, I wrote for both high school and college publications, my first taste of non-school deadlines.
This book’s deadline is unique to my experience because the last date is so far out. In my day job, deadlines are on the order of days or weeks, not months. Working on this book reminds me of my mortgage: it’s something that just hangs over me.
Because the date is so far out, it can be hard to develop urgency. To combat this, as I wrote in Blog #03, I write for an hour or so practically every night. This the only way for me to keep on schedule. Clearly a 350 page book is not something you can leave to the last minute!
Thank You for reading!
