Self-Imposed Deadlines

On the forum of a writers’ group of which I’m a member, the topic came up of self-imposed deadlines, which got me to think how I’ve been doing this year with my various writing projects.

Well, basically there’s been one project. Ever since my New Years’ Resolutions, I’ve been working on a fantasy novel unrelated to anything I’d worked on before, which is a bit of a step forward. As I said in the LiveJournal entry, I’d been getting bogged down and flitting from project to project.

So, to date, I’m about 90% through the first draft of a novel-length project, which is about as far as I’ve made it through anything but short stories since I was in Iraq. Now, I had planned to draft two novels this year, but… well… that’s not going to work out so well unless I finish this one soon and manage a truly excellent NaNoWriMo.

I’ve managed to get as far as I have, though, through setting some deadlines. They’re basically just milestones along the way… I once had a deadline to finish–that first ambitious bit when I thought I could write two novels in a year–and I sort of blew right through that one. But I also haven’t been super-harsh on myself, given that life tends to throw a lot of things my way. If, by next year sometime, I’m at least working part-time on the writing, or just getting more disciplined at it with more practice, I might be harder on myself with the deadlines… But I’ll also have a second child around, so we’ll see about that.

Anyway, all that to say I find the self-imposed deadlines pretty useful. Any other writer types work the same way?