“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

— Pablo Picasso

I’m no Picasso, but his words - and the thought of that literal deadline - resonate. This summer I’m writing my second novel, Kindergarten Mafia. I’ve set a strict schedule: I want to complete the first draft within eight weeks.

Does writing to a deadline matter? Here’s what I know from experience:

I didn’t set any kind of timeline for my first stab at writing a full-length piece of fiction, a screenplay titled Myopia. I was cocky. I figured, since I already wrote for broadcast news and corporate television it would only take a couple of months. How hard could it be? More than two years later Myopia was complete. I followed that up with a 35,000-word novella, Letters to the 23rd Century, which took eight months to write. That deadline wasn’t mine - the novella was part of a thesis project for a graduate program ⁱ - it was someone else’s.

At the beginning of 2006, I began my first full-length novel, 2ManyCooksⁱⁱ. I committed to having the first draft completed within one year. By December I had a bouncing, 75-thousand-word book. I enjoyed the security of having a schedule, even if it was self-imposed. I was used to it.

Through my career in radio, television and corporate video I wrote reams of material to deadline. I wrote news stories, scripts, magazine articles, grant applications and speeches. All of these formats helped me learn the foundations of the craft. I learned rhythm, punctuation, rules of grammar and fearless editing.ⁱⁱⁱ I learned to be a disciplined writer. When it came to creative writing, however, I had a lot to learn.

I read books that writers recommended. Most recently, I’ve made good use of Robery Ray and Brek Norris’ The Weekend Novelist. The books I will always keep in my home library include Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, anything written by Linda Seger and Stephen King’s On Writing. Within the two parts of his book - his personal writer’s story and his knowledge of the craft - King never once gets precious. He writes. It’s his job. He is a fine role model.

Over the years I’ve studied writing with many dedicated mentors who counseled me to ‘Just write’. Here are four of them:

My first mentor in broadcast writing was Kerry Marshall^iv, a radio news director in Vancouver who loved to pin inspirational quotes over our Underwood typewriters. We wrote non-stop for four hours every morning, from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., with deadlines every half hour.

The first writing retreat I attended was at The Workshops in Rockport Maine where I learned corporate scriptwriting techniques for Grant Williams. Later, I applied to the Maui Writer’s Retreat where I studied screenwriting for one week with the incredible Chris Vogler^v. Both men challenged students with the odd overnight deadline. The results weren’t always pretty. In fact, I remember Grant handing back one assignment with the words, “You’re better than this.”

I continue to learn from many writers who share their approach to the discipline of writing. In May, I was reinvigorated with a one-day workshop called Writing in Leaps and Bounds with Lois Peterson^vi. Lois, by the way, doesn’t believe in writer’s block. When I’m not having a great day, I remember her solutions for getting back in the groove. And I still turn out forty-five pages a week.

So let’s see: with the screenplay, I didn’t set a deadline and it took over two years. With the novella, someone else set an eight-month deadline and it took - eight months. I set a one-year deadline for the first draft of my first novel and it took - one year. I’ve set and eight-week deadline for my second novel and I expect it will take - eight weeks.

Back to the question: Does writing to a deadline matter? Not really. Fast doesn’t mean good. But working to a schedule does signal an elevated sense of commitment.

It also means that, with a nod to Mr. Picasso, I am not willing to put things off to another day.

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ⁱ The graduate Liberal Studies program at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. See: http://www.sfu.ca/gls

ⁱⁱ 2ManyCooks, is now a submission-ready manuscript. MUSIC IN: violins swell. In a future Gingerheart blog I’ll write about my search for a publisher.

ⁱⁱⁱ Sounds great, but it has also turned me into a Miss Prissy Pants who cringes at the misuse of words. “Fewer, when you talk in plural form, it’s fewer, not less,” I scream. In my head. I’m not hardcore.

^iv Kerry has been in broadcast news for more than thirty-five years. He is still on air every morning at JACK FM in Vancouver. If he were a math equation it would read: Kerry = comedic writing. It pairs well with heavy metal.

^v This is Chris Vogler’s official website: http://thewritersjourney.com

^vi Find out more about Lois Peterson and her workshops at http://lpwordsolutions.com