Deadlines ... or lack thereof

When there is no money involved, it's easy to miss them

Birthday Card | © 2007 by Borealis Press Inc.

I never used to miss deadlines during my previous writing lives. In the beginning of my writing career I was a news reporter responsible for three features a week—education, seniors, and health.

I also had to cover breaking news (which regularly interrupted work on features), visit the police station to write a quick police blotter, help write cutlines (captions) and headlines, and just in case I wanted to go home, I had to stay and proofread the dummy layout in the days before computers.

Did I mention I was a single mother who had to go to bed at 9 p.m. and wake up at 2:30 a.m. to write a feature story due in the morning?

My daughter cut her teeth on City Council meetings late at night and learned to sit quietly on the floor coloring pictures for a few hours. Still I never missed a deadline.

Covering news was hardcore training, and it made meeting deadlines in the corporate world six years later seem easy. Deadlines never really mattered in high-tech land. I’d meet one, and then they’d realize they wanted to add a new feature to a product release, and I’d have to go back and rewrite, add, edit, and delete material (without enough reasonable time to meet a new one).

Still, I met whatever deadline was imposed.

Suffice it to say I didn’t get a lot of sleep during the nights I slept under my desk for a few hours to meet deadlines that should have been impossible.

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I’ve discovered in my creative writing life that I dismiss self-imposed deadlines with abandon. I miss deadlines I’ve set to submit to open calls. No guilt. But, this morning I woke up and thought, I must post something! I promised some of my readers I would.

Apparently, after three days of walking outside rather than sitting at a PC writing, some level of guilt has kicked in. Either that, or I just have that itch. I must write! I haven’t written anything at all until now—not even in my journal.

Since I’ve got lots pictures already, I’ll begin posting. That’s the only deadline that’s important to me right now. Keep my promise. I will share pictures daily, as long as I get at least one hour alone and reliable Wifi, even if I don’t write much of anything. Here is a pic of my arrival. I almost missed it getting my phone out of the bag!

Arrival in Arequipa, Peru | Mt. Chachani | August 5, 2026 | Photo by the Author

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By the way, I am not missing the United States at all—or the news—and since this is the first chance in eight years I’ve had to be out of the country, the news is the one thing I plan not to check for the next month. Be back soon :-)

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