Hey, remember last week when I wrote a ridiculously short and rather pointless blog post that I won’t bother linking to here because there’s no point in actually reading it?
(Unless you’re super curious now, in which case, you can read it here.)
Anyway, I was in the thick of hitting a deadline for a short story anthology last week, which I’m pleased to announce I nailed with flying colors.
Not only that, but I also revamped a second short story and shot it off for another last-minute submission call.
Impressive, huh? (At least I think so, considering I haven’t hit a short story deadline in about five years, maybe more.) And for this impressive feat, I’d like to thank the wonders of working under pressure. Without those deadlines staring me down, I would not have been motivated to get my butt in gear.
So, working under pressure works.
However, not in the way it might sound.
For the story I wrote from scratch, the market asked for pieces under 5000 words on a specific theme by Jan 31. When I read about the call a few weeks ago, I immediately started brainstorming. I tried out a first line for a concept, realized it wasn’t what I wanted, and brainstormed some more. When a new idea hit, I jotted down a different first line, and that one led to a second line, third, fourth, etc. This eventually grew into a scene, which eventually led to …
A block.
Yes, really.
The writing process is often described as this linear concept where you go from brainstorming to rough draft to revisions to final polish. As someone who’s been doing this for over ten years, this has largely not been my experience. It’s more like brainstorm, draft, hit wall, rethink, brainstorm more, knock down wall, keep building, hit new wall …
You get the idea.
So, you may be wondering, what does this have to do with working under pressure.
Well, the pressure speeds up this process. I knew I had a deadline I wanted to meet. Thus, I was motivated to think through those blocks and figure out how to knock down those walls so I could keep building.
Importantly, however, I was able to do this because I started building with time to spare.
Pressure only works when it’s at the right amount. If I’d waited until last week to start working on the story for the Jan 31 deadline, it never would have happened because the pressure would have been too much. However, starting the week of Jan 10 or so gave me a chance to try stuff out, organize my thoughts, revamp where necessary, etc. Then, when it came to the final polish, all the pieces were in place to push that story over the finish line. (Ooh, alliteration! Sorry.)
Point is, managing pressure and expectations goes a long way in terms of what we’re able to accomplish. By choosing a deadline I knew I could meet if I worked diligently, I set myself up for success. If you start thinking of pressure as a tool you can control to leverage an outcome, you start to figure out how to make it work for you, which allows for things like making your first short-story deadline in five years.
Now, obviously, it would be amazing if both the stories I submitted last week got picked up by the markets currently considering them.
But even if they aren’t, I still made those deadlines. And that’s a win.
So, go forth and pressure yourself within reasonable limits.
👋 Fair travels,
Mary
P.S. A big thanks to ColiN00B from Pixabay for the image.