J is for Just in Time

The thing about motivation is that those self help books are really only any use for putting royalties into the pocket of the author.    Hmm ... Since I actually possess the ultimate secret of self motivation, perhaps I could write a world best seller motivational text and make me richer than my more realistic speculations.

Except that big secret does not seem to be a money winner = at least not to my way of thinking.

What is the secret?    Well, suppose you have promised your editor a final working draft by next Friday.   Now, honestly, which is the first day you will do any real work on it?   Yeah - me too.    Thursday evening when there is really not enough time left to get it finished properly.

The urgency of having to hit a deadline - or face really unpleasant consequences - has a two-fold effect.   First, the distaste at having to actually sit down and get some work done is finally pushed to one side and the fingers fly across the key board like demented little honey bees let loose in the ecstasy of a clover patch grown wild.

And second - even more important - the creative juices bring ideas teeming into play which (this is very important) would never have occurred to you without the pressure of a deadline looming like a guillotine over your future career.    I am truly amazed at some of the plot twists that came my way because my demented muse had left me no time to consider where they were going to take me.   A sort of "stream of consciousness"  writing style, but one, due to avoiding an impending disaster, causes the stream to flow in a coherent and logical manner.

Procrastination comes easy to all of us.    Indeed, I would have been accepted as a member of the Procrastinator's Society, but unfortunately my application arrived just before the final, final dead-line ran out.  Life can be cruel, at times.

I have an on-line acquaintance who has to produce work of an educational content from time to time - and, oh boy, does she cut it fine every time.   Promises of rewards if written earlier?  Hah! - not a chance.    Threats of dire consequences if not written ahead of time?   As she put it, "Don't make me laugh so hard, my ribs cannot take it."   

But the night before the deadline looms?   Easy peasy - no problem in whipping out a couple of thousand words that would satisfy the most pedantic of professors.

So - if you want to write really great spanking fiction, make an irrevocable commitment to deliver it by no later than a set time on a set date.   And then sit back and wait.

(I really do not see how all of this can be turned into a full length book on self motivation.   If you can spot a way, and you write such a tome - that is perfectly OK provided a small portion of your loot is shared with your inspirational source.)

p.s. On my schedule for the AtoZ challenge, I need to publish each piece at 8 a.m. (local) each day of the challenge.   Guess what time it is now, as I finish writing this post.   Gosh - you are clever.