August turned out just too full of other things, so I won’t get this draft done by the end of the month. I’ll be making a course correction and setting the deadline to September 30.
The key here is to not take this as a disaster and just give up on the project. Just like in project management, things happen and you have to make adjustments to deadlines, deliverables and reports to the honchos. Adjustments to the timeline are normal and taken with a healthy dose of “what happened, what went wrong and what can we do to stay on task and on target?”
Schedule slip is going to happen. Think about the priorities in your life, like family, health, work around the house and others. These have a place and writing cannot push all of them aside all the time. When I get to spend some great, quality time with my grandkids, the writing gets set aside. When I need to visit my mother, who may not remember who I am next time, the writing gets pushed aside.
But, I realize the deadline approaches and I need to refocus my efforts. I’m well into the story and know roughly where it will go. So, I just hunker down and get back to work. Can I hit the goal by September 30? Certainly. I know I can because I’ve done it before (thank you, NaNoWriMo!).
“Prepare to come about!”
“Aye, aye!”
“Jibe, jibe, jibe!”
Keep writing.
