People with deadlines

[Gaelbert]

How do you do it?
I'm talking about authors, journalists, poets, artists, coders, what have you, anyone who needs inspiration to do their job. How do you balance inspiration and creative flow against deadlines? If all goes well I may get a position to write a weekly column for a newspaper in Montana, but I have no clue whether I can stick to that. I've easily wrote an essay or so a week for the last few years of my life, but what if one day my creative juices run dry? Do you just make uninspired drivel and hope it's good enough, or do you do nothing at all?

[Dr.Epic]

I usually just put in a movie and work for 2 straight hours (or two films if I need 4 hours) listening to it as background noise. Just pick a film you've seen a dozen times. You won't be tempted to watch it.

[Fri]

Do you just make uninspired drivel and hope it's good enough, or do you do nothing at all?

You never know if your 'uninspired drivel' would be considered a masterpiece by everyone. It happens all the time.

[Lady Moreta]

How do you do it?
I'm talking about authors, journalists, poets, artists, coders, what have you, anyone who needs inspiration to do their job. How do you balance inspiration and creative flow against deadlines? If all goes well I may get a position to write a weekly column for a newspaper in Montana, but I have no clue whether I can stick to that. I've easily wrote an essay or so a week for the last few years of my life, but what if one day my creative juices run dry? Do you just make uninspired drivel and hope it's good enough, or do you do nothing at all?

I don't do any of those things, but I do have deadlines and frequently struggle to find inspiration (and I write for enjoyment and struggle with inspiration there too). I have two fixes sometimes one works and sometimes the other.

Just do it. Sit down and force yourself to just start writing. It might start out as drivel, but eventually you'll find yourself getting into the flow and your ideas will start coming and you'll find that you're writing back at your usual pace and your usual quality. I do this when I'm writing for myself and am struggling to get my ideas out. Putting something on as background noise can be helpful as well, you'll know yourself best. I can listen to music or a movie and be fine, my husband can't, he'll get distracted.

My second one is to space things out and take lots of little breaks. This one works best if the problem is that I'm restless or fidgety. I work for half an hour and then let myself have a 5-10min break, then get back to work. Tends to work best if your breaks don't take you too far from your workstation, otherwise you run the rist of getting sidetracked again.

Other things to remember - don't be afraid to ask others for ideas if you're having trouble even coming with something.
If you really are just stuck and cannot get moving at all, you've tried everything and still nothing's coming. Just stop. Get yourself out and away for at least an hour. Sometimes going for an hour walk will settle me, sometimes I'll take half a day and then be fine. Sometimes I just have to let it go completely and come back to it the next day. As long as you ensure that you do come back to it, then it's okay.
Distractions are a killer. Make sure you know what distracts you and avoid it like the plague. Myself? This forum is horribly distracting. I turned my laptop on about half an hour ago intending to do some writing - I have an idea for a snippet from my D&D game. Thus far I haven't even opened the word processor. I've checked my PMs, replied to them, replied to a couple of threads (including this one) and gone on a hunt for my CD wallet (didn't find it). What I really need to do is just close the damn internet browser... same thing - if you need to focus make sure you are avoiding the things that distract you.

[Xiander]

Deadlines are the only thing that makes me work.

Take my current situation: three exams due tomorrow by noon. I am lacking at leas eight pages of text before i can call it done, and i have had plenty of time to work on it.
I am determined to hand them in on time, so in the near future i will put on my my work song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2Qmx2zp4E) and get it over with.

[Kislath]

Yeah, same here; I often can't get anything done UNLESS I'm bouncing off a deadline. My advice is to carry a little tiny notepad with you at all times and write down anything interesting that pops into your head. That way you'll have a supply of topics.

[Sipex]

Listening to music helps a lot I find.

[ReynardCity]

Without wanting to sound churlish I have done "proper" jobs like working in a bar or a shop. Writing is a heck of a lot better and you should always remember that!

In terms of the mechanics of writing itself, the key is routine. A bit like revising for an exam once you find your routine it makes life a lot easier. For example I like to look at my emails first, maybe go out for a coffee first. I then write until lunch, break for lunch, then do some more writing. I then break for coffee and do a bit more writing before dinner and finally switching off.

I know that doesn't sound very exciting but it helps space it out. Background noise such as the TV or music helps too. Oh and do your best to ignore Twitter, Facebook etc.

[Comet]

One of the things they teach over here at the university is this:

If you want to do anything creative for a living, you have to learn to let go. A lot of beginning writers and such are always thinking that their writing isn't good enough, that they should edit it a bit more before handing the text in.

That just won't work in all situations. Not everything you do can (or should) be a masterpiece! You just need to do what needs to be done and hope it's good enough. Of course, sometimes it will be rubbish. But that's just the way it is. Those masterpieces will come along someday, for now just get some work done.

Doing nothing at all just because the 'inspiration' isn't there is the kind of stuff you can do when writing for fun. It has little place in professional writing.

And hey, you'd be surprised how much inspiration you can find in your brainbox if you look for it hard enough. If your mind is really set in getting some writing done, you'll come by some spark eventually. Giving up is never the solution, is all I'm saying.

[shawnhcorey]

How do you do it?

I don't do deadlines (http://blogs.perl.org/users/shawnhcorey/2010/08/i-dont-do-deadlines.html).

[ReynardCity]

One of the things they teach over here at the university is this:

If you want to do anything creative for a living, you have to learn to let go. A lot of beginning writers and such are always thinking that their writing isn't good enough, that they should edit it a bit more before handing the text in.


Doing nothing at all just because the 'inspiration' isn't there is the kind of stuff you can do when writing for fun. It has little place in professional writing.

And hey, you'd be surprised how much inspiration you can find in your brainbox if you look for it hard enough. If your mind is really set in getting some writing done, you'll come by some spark eventually. Giving up is never the solution, is all I'm saying.

I have to say I agree on this. Although I would say you do have the other category of uni known as people who get 500 ideas before breakfast and don't follow up any of them.

As I've got older I've learned to do both the work stuff and the stuff that pleases me.

[esspwebmaster]

inspiration is necessary but main thing is meditation and focusing on your job.

[rayne_dragon]

I find I write best when I'm inspired, but sometimes the creativity just doesn't come. If I have to write when I'm not inspired to, I generally just sit down and force myself to start writing, cringing that it's not as good as I would like. Fortunately, sometimes just the act of writing is enough to get inspired.

[akma]

For inspiration, you could do thought experiments - think about something unusal and then think of what derives from it (What if organ trading was considered legal and ok? What if instead of prisons there were gladiotrical arenes? How would wars look like if teleportation was common?).
Also, are you supposed to write about something specific or on whatever you want?

[Balain]

Well my job in the oil and gas industry wasn't really creative at all. We did have major deadlines all the time.

According to many of our contracts, if project X isn't finished in Y number of weeks we need to pay a penalty to company Z an amount equal to $2.6 million dollars. If project Y is finished before y number of weeks we earn a bonus of $1.3 million dollars"

So yeah that was some motivation to finish project on time or sooner. There were a few times I just couldn't get my scripts to work, or I couldn't find a way to read the data off the clients 40 year old tape, or the quick bit of code I had to write wasn't doing what I thought it should do.

The only solution as much as I hated to do it was ask other people in the office if they had ideas or had similar problems.

[sennieL]

When I have some deadlines my secret weapon is a big cup of coffee to keep my mind working. Coffee has always been a lifesaver in many circumstances. For coffee lovers out there, here's a good news for you all. The Starbucks 40th anniversary is coming very soon. The company plans on releasing the Trenta (http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2011/01/18/starbucks-trenta-50-cents-more-than-venti/) sizing. The Starbucks Trenta sizing will cost 50 cents above the Venti, and it is accessible only for iced drinks. The larger Trenta size is seven ounces more than the Venti size.

[AslanCross]

I'm a teacher. I'm required to submit plans regularly. The plans themselves are often uninspired and rushed. The inspiration comes usually when I'm already there in front of the class, and often isn't even something I'm able to put into my PowerPoints. Sometimes it comes from something a student says. Sometimes a memory just comes rushing back. Wherever it comes from, it usually comes suddenly and unexpectedly.

[Trog]

I worked for a newspaper for about 12 or thirteen years or so. Deadlines become a way of life. You just push through to get to the next one and work ahead enough to make sure you have time to complete it all.

Of course everything always runs right up to deadline and you learn to excel under pressure eventually, or you burn out and simply cannot do it. You can never really tell until you've been there I suppose.

Initially it was very stressful to abide by but after a few of months it became habit and with the anxiety out of the way you just push yourself to improve and speed up to meet the pace of demand. Naturally at first the quality will suffer but you eventually learn to find the balance between just right and on-time.

Best of luck to you! :smallsmile:

[Traab]

Try not to do just the minimum needed. In other words, if you need an article done by monday, try to have two done by then. This way you can have a buffer available should you get stuck. I dunno how time sensitive your article would be, but you could adjust your reserve of articles to fit the scenario.

[shadow_archmagi]

I find that panic is the best source of creative inspiration for me.

I'll come up with good ideas all the time, but unless I have an essay due tomorrow or something, I won't write them.