The very thought of setting deadlines for your work is anathema to some writers.  They believe that having a fixed time to complete a story will knobble their creativity and result in them churning out awful hogwash.  I don’t agree – personally I think that there’s joy to be found in a little bit of discipline.  Possibly if you set unrealistic deadlines you will indeed find yourself knobbled and not produce your best work, but reasonable time set for a project can inspire you to work at it every day rather than watching soaps because you have all the time in the world after all.  Truthfully, we don’t have all the time in the world, and if we want to leave a legacy of stories, we need to get them written down.  Goal setting helps us do this.

Deadlines can be terrifying things when life gets in the way in…