The Dreaded Deadline



Guest Contributor Morgan Shamy

 Alert! Alert! Someone has hacked the YAtopia blog. I repeat, there has been a breach. Code red! Code red!

Are you all running around screaming, diving for your secret stash of weapons ready to defend your favorite blog to the death? What? You don’t keep a knife under your pillow for such occasions? Er … I mean, I don’t either …

As you all know, the great Leigh Fallon fell and suffered a concussion on Sunday night. So, as it states in her will, I, Morgan Shamy am to take over all her writing responsibilities until the said party is fully recovered and well. Which includes, (in fine print) finishing all of her final proofs for The Carrier of the Mark, writing future sequels, and showing up for all signings/movie premiers. So, of course, I’ve been sneaking daily doses of cyanide into her morning coffee—just enough to keep her down so I can bask in the high and mighty life of an established author. I’M KIDDING! Laughing yet, Leigh?

Okay, okay … let’s get down to business. We’re talking DEADLINES. The dreaded ‘D’ word, right?

No, I’m not officially cool enough yet to have a ‘real’ deadline, but I had an author friend of mine who challenged me to get my WIP done by March 17. I took this challenge VERY seriously. For the past two months, I’ve been waking up at 3:00 am, 6 days a week in order to have some silent writing time. Because let’s face it, when the demon spawn wake up, it’s all downhill from there.

And man! It’s AMAZING how much I’ve accomplished in these past months! Roll with me here for a minute: Do you know the part in movies where the MC gets all motivated to change their life and the inspirational/jammin’ music is playing and there’s a whole lot of sweating, pushing, and fighting to attain that one single goal? Are you following me here? Think Rocky.

That’s me. Without the facial bruising and slurred speech. I will have a complete MS this Thursday. I have pushed, forced, squeezed, prodded and cried in order to get these words out. But yes, I will. Be. Done. Because that’s what my goal was. Yes! I’ve made my deadline.

Or have I?

And here’s my biggest fear: Have I forced the story out? Have I tampered with the creative juices that flow naturally only when those inspirational moments hit? Has the right story not come out? Could it have been better? (and I’m not talking editing/polishing here, I’m talking right down to the heart and structure of the story itself)

Would it have been better not to set a personal deadline? But if I hadn’t, would I have come as far as I have?

See my predicament?

I don’t have the answer yet. But what I do know is that yes, there are times when the magic is flowing so hard it’s like a dam has burst. My fingers can’t type fast enough. But, it’s also in the rocky moments when I have to force myself to write, that I learn something new.

So let’s kick it to you peeps. Who writes better under pressure? Is it better to set a personal deadline and push yourself to get results? Can you force brilliance? Or does brilliance come and go whenever inspiration hits?

Crap! What time is it? I was supposed to have Leigh’s coffee to her an hour ago …

(Our lovely friend Morgan, pictured above, is a 29-year-old aspiring author currently living in Eagle Mountain, Utah. She caught the writing bug while her three-year-old battled cancer, and hasn't been able to stop since.)