Why You’re Missing Writing Deadlines, and How to Stop

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I love deadlines. 

They create urgency, order and expectations for everyone involved.

But deadlines aren’t everyone’s jam. In fact, it’s the biggest pain point for most writers. As an editor and book coach, I’ve had to track down many writers when the due date has come and gone. 

So if it’s a problem for a lot of people, maybe we should just throw deadlines out the window, right?

Not exactly. If there were no deadlines, projects would be open-ended. We long for things to be completed — to have a sense of accomplishment. 

You deserve clarity and space to keep writing and to not have anxiety about telling your editor or writing coach yet again that you’re “so sorry for being late”.

It’s time for a new way of working. But first, we need to look at why you’re doing what you do.

Why You’re Choosing to Be Late

Before you yell at me, hear me out.

I’ve seen the research about people being innately late and how you can’t change it. But I’ll direct you to a scene from He’s Just Not That Into You.

Alex (Justin Long) tells Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) that she keeps going after unavailable men because she loves the drama. She wants to punch him in the face at first, but realizes he’s right. 

She fed off of the anticipation of will he or won’t he call — She was choosing to be strung along.

We hate to be told we’re the cause of our own pain. And yes, there’s a million reasons why we choose the things we do, but these are few of the most common ones for writers.

Failure to Plan Well

When I was producing Facebook Live segments for magazines, I ran a tight ship. I had pre-production, filming and post-production down to the very minute, but I built in plenty of cushion time in case anything went wrong. Even if I was on time, a visiting chef might arrive late from the airport or the live feed could crap out causing us to restart the whole segment.

Whatever the case, I wanted to make sure I alleviated any hiccups before they even happened. I hoped everything would run smoothly, but I didn’t assume it would.

So, why are some people better at planning than others? 

It might have to do with the planning fallacy, a 1979 study done by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Their main finding was that a lack of planning was due to: “the tendency to underestimate the amount of time needed to complete a future task, due in part to the reliance on overly optimistic performance scenarios.”

For every new deadline, you may be holding onto an old idea that you can crank out 10 pages a week, but you’re forgetting about the three hour appointment you have this Saturday and how you have to work late all next week. 

Worse yet, you’ll block out the times you were late or got behind in favor of the rare times when your planning went well.

Build extra time into your calendar for your writing, just in case. Allow yourself space to write and rest easy knowing that even if you miss a writing session because of something unexpected, you have more time at your disposal.

Avoidance

I can feel when a writer is avoiding me. 

The emails are seen, but the replies take longer to come in. It might be a few hours or even a day, but then come the apologies and explanations. 

These revisions are taking me longer than I thought.

This last week was really hectic, but I’m writing the pages now.

I’m not sure I understand your notes for these two chapters.

But all of this comes after the deadline has been missed, and I’ve sent a check-in email...or two. And no matter what they think, I’m not going to forget about deadlines. That’s what they’re paying me for! 

You know what’s better than ghosting your editor or coach?

Clear communication.

The moment you see a roadblock with your schedule or you have a question about what you’re working on, let your people know.

Give them the opportunity to work with you, so you don’t have to keep sending apology emails. You’re an adult, so you can take responsibility for your end of the project. Don’t make your editor chase you.

People are depending on you — waiting on you, so they can do their job. The very least you can do is send an email letting them know if you’re struggling with the work or deadline.

No Consequences

Deadlines are made up.

Said every late person ever.

But seriously, while I can entertain some notion of deadlines being imaginary and that time’s relative, we don’t truly live in a world without deadlines.

Don’t pay your rent on time? You’ll get a late fee and maybe an eviction notice if it continues to happen.

Submit your job application past the deadline? You won’t be considered.

Forget to send someone an invoice? You’re not getting paid.

For my clients, if you miss a deadline, you acknowledge that you forfeit written feedback for those pages. So when they’re late, they lose out on half of what they’re paying me for. And I’m not going to lie, it hurts me every time it happens. Yes, there are exceptions for every rule, but I’ve found clients who miss one deadline will do everything in their power not to miss another one.

If you’re working for people who are lenient with you, I throw this consequence at you:

By continuing to miss deadlines, you’re creating a reputation as someone who doesn’t respect the time of other’s.

People may not say something right now, but word will get around. And if you want to be a working writer, that’s the ultimate nail in the coffin. 

Staying on Track

Even under ideal conditions, unexpected things will pop up with your writing work. However as you move forward, the main things to consider with every deadline are:

• Am I giving myself enough time?

• Are my actions showing respect for the people who I’m working with?

There are only so many things within our control, but we can control how we show up.

If you’re ready to up level your deadline game, grab your spot on my coaching waitlist here, and let’s create a new story.