Way back in the last millenium, I took a high school debate class. One of our assignments was to perform a "dramatic interpretation".

I had a week or two to prepare. I skimmed through a file of short stories, but didn't find anything I liked. So I decided to write my own.

To make a short story about writing short stories even shorter, the day before I was scheduled to perform, I had nothing. Maybe a few false starts on ideas that were even worse than stories in the file that I'd rejected. Nothing was flowing.

My back was against the wall -- I had no choice but to produce something. So I sat down in the library and forced out a poem and a story to go with it. I'm not sure I even had time for a second draft.

The next day, I stood up in front of the class thinking, "well, it's not much, but at least I've got something. I'll get the assignment out of the way and go on with my life."

By the time I'd finished, the feeling in the room was so thick, you could have poked it with a pen. It was a home run. It was a grand slam. And I'd had no idea.

But do deadlines improve writing, or was that just luck? I'd guess that for every deadline-driven home run writing project, there are 99 procrastination-produced foul balls.

Still, while I absolutely don't recommend leaving your writing till the last minute, writing to deadlines has its benefits. For every procrastination-produced foul ball, there are probably 999 strikeouts -- pieces that never got written at all.

Last week at MarketCopywriter Blog, Lorraine Thompson published a post about 7 ways deadline-driven writing supports creativity. Let's talk about 2 of them:

2. Obliges you to write every day. Writers write. It defines us. If all you do is think about writing...you aren't a writer. On the other hand if you write"”even if it's website content or blog posts or collateral"”if you regularly produce words and sentences, you're a writer.

Reader Comment:
Lorraine said:
Hi Antone: This is a terrific post. Thanks for the mention. My premise--that deadline-driven work aids creativity--derives from my observation of creative people. Along with their generative energy, writers, artists, entrepreneurs and other "cr...
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Famous writers often recommend that aspiring authors write at least a certain number of words every day. Whatever your goal as a writer, if you're not writing, you've got a problem that absolutely must be solved. If setting up deadlines and making yourself accountable to others to meet them is what it takes, do it.

Even if all you produce is foul balls at first, at least you'll stay alive and have a chance to make a hit.

6. Purges you of perfectionism. Copy is never "done." If you didn't have to deliver on a certain date, you'd keep pruning, rearranging, revising and polishing forever.

Until the day before my dramatic interp performance, my inner critic shot down every idea that dared to raise its head. The deadline forced the critic to shut up, turn off, and let the words flow. It released my creative voice.

If you listen your critic, you'll delete a lot of good seeds that could have grown into something beautiful before they have a chance to break through their rough shells. Deadlines are a powerful tool for letting ideas out into the light long enough to be seen for what they are.

Sometimes, they will be ugly. But at least then you'll be able to reject them on their merits. And you may get a better idea or learn something in the process. Unlike real plants, an ugly piece of writing can produce the seeds of something beautiful.

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