How to Keep Your Deadline as a Writer Even in Quarantine

A neat little trick on how to meet a deadline is to first have a deadline. Wait what? 

Being in quarantine sucks for so many reasons, the government is giving away trillions of our tax dollars to Wall Street while they say they don’t have enough for universal healthcare, unemployment is at an all time high, we can’t visit loved ones- but at least you can write. You can escape into whatever world you create and once we come out of this pit of despair you’ll have something to show for it. 

So, the deadline. When I was writing ”The Luring” I had to wear many hats, from casting, to producing, managing the website and social media, etc.. I also had to write a script and since the house we were going to shoot in was for sale, we had an unavoidable deadline that was quickly approaching. It surely put pressure on me but we creatives thrive under deadlines, even though we go kicking and screaming having that looming date creates order which is necessary. 

So how did I create deadlines that actually work?

Use your friends as readers!

When you’re writing a script it’s easy to get distracted  but if you tell someone “I’ll have something for you to read by the end of the week” you just created a deadline. 

Using your friends as a readers is a trick when writing isn’t your job but you still want to write something that could one day be something other than a word doc on your computer. It has to be real and it has to get finished for anything to happen and without deadlines it wont get done. 

Having a reader keeps you on track because you know their time is valuable and they are doing you a favor. When someone agrees to read your script that’s a big responsibility and you being a non-asshole respects your friend and their time so you’ll honor your end of the exchange and that’s giving it to them when promised.

In return you’ll also get feedback that will enable you to reach future deadlines because now you have another pair of eyeballs rooting for you to fix whatever problems that arose. They will see things you missed which gives you the spotlight to make that change because it’s identified. 

Knowing you’ll get Feedback puts you in a different mindset!

Meeting the deadline pressures you to figure things out because it’s far different to read it by yourself than stating it knowing someone else is going to be able to critique it. If they don’t “get" your story then you need to fix that and it all starts by sending it to them at the end of the week. They can’t read what they don’t have and you can’t write without that reader. Yes this is torture but it also saves us from the shackles we put on ourselves when we assume we can do this alone. We all need a push and we all have friends who want us to succeed and are willing to read what we came up with. Shit, they’re in quarantine too so you’re giving them an escape and an interesting topic to talk about so it’s a win win for both. 

Even when I was writing my weird short film “Quarantine Sunscreen” I used a friend who read my first draft to see if it was funny and to also pump up the social commentary aspect of the script. So this applies to all scripts, feature and shorts. Even though this particular short was really just me being an artist so I was my own deadline I knew I had to use my friend to keep me on track so I could keep my sanity during this pandemic. Yes staying active in your creative endeavors will keep you sane but that’s a whole other topic but trust me, it works.

So turn off your social media, your phone, whatever distracts you and write. Tell a friend you’ll have something for them to read and you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll be patting your self on the back with the feeling of accomplishment.  

High-five!