It’s that time of year when anyone on the New Writers’ Scheme who hasn’t yet submitted their manuscript, is wondering how on earth it can be August already.
When I blogged about the NWS deadline a couple of years ago here, Jane Lovering commented that “The NWS deadline is nature’s way of preparing you for the horrific task of hitting deadline dates …”. She was right. Although, I’m yet to master the art effectively.
I know several of The Romaniac girls are submitting their manuscripts under the NWS and a couple of us have publisher deadlines looming. To keep me focussed on mine, I keep telling myself to ‘just say no’ (a catch phrase pinched from Zammo, for those old enough to remember him from Grange Hill). This ties in nicely with a picture I shared on Facebook of a J K Rowling quote.
“Be ruthless about protecting your writing days, ie. do not cave in to endless requests to have ‘essential and long overdue’ meetings on those days.”
Not only that, but I often refer back to Nora Roberts and her take on writing. The whole clip below is very inspiring but it’s at 5mins 20secs in, where she talks about keeping you’re a*** in the chair, when I really take note.
And if that’s not enough, I would also add to J K Rowling’s quote, protect your writing time with the same ferocity you would protect the last slice of chocolate cake or last glass of wine.
Good luck to everyone and hope you all have great feedback.
Sue
The Romaniacs 
NoooOOOO! Ahhhh, that’s better. Thank you for the reminder, Sue. I may have a sign painted to hang on my door. 🙂 Good luck to all those submitting! 🙂 xx
I’m practising it in my kitchen. No cooking. No cooking. No cooking 🙂 I must get on with book 3 …