Deadlines and How to Meet Them

Dearest Supporters of the Typewriter,

In this blog post, we’ll be covering the high-cortisol environment of…deadlines! However, rest assured, we will be mostly dealing in the realm of literary magazines. School and academic deadlines have no place here!

We know that you are busy. We all are! We’ve all got jobs and hobbies and families and responsibilities. But what we don’t have is time, an extra couple of hours in every day, the ability to stay up all night catching up on work, then heading into the office when the sun starts to rise. Caffeine can only take us so far.

So how in the world are we expected to get done all the multitude of things we have to get done?!

Two words: Time. Management.

Management of your time is one of the most useful tools you can have in your arsenal, right up there with sarcasm and people-pleasing (psst, people-pleasing can also, at times, be supplemented for ‘general disdain of the world’).

Schedules that make it out of your head can also help; think whiteboards, planners, calenders. This editor personally loves a massive, hectic, color-coded mess to stroke their beard while gazing lovingly at. Planning out when the submissions close, when to begin working on the piece you’ve got scribbled down on a post-it that would be perfect for the theme, and when to submit works. What also works is realizing the night before that submissions close at 12 p.m. eastern time, and you’ve got to submit or the world will never hear the story you just know will change it forever and ever. However, this editor does not recommend it (those under-eye bags can get heavy).

For example, say you’re scrolling on ChillSubs and you find a literary magazine with a theme that matches perfectly the idea that’s been stuck in the crevices of your headspace, refusing to come out even when poked with a stick and prodded with chocolate.

You note the day subs close, and you set to work.

Maybe it’s a short story you’ve been thinking about forever but never had cause to write, maybe it’s a poem that came to you as soon as you saw the theme. Whatever it may be, you get started on a first draft.

Or maybe you sit with it for a few days. Maybe you stew. Rotate the ideas a bit in your head. Tweak them, adjust them. Then you start your first draft.

Everyone’s journey is different. What matters isn’t how you start, but that you start. Keeping the the deadline in mind will always be better than rushing to finish something early, or procrastinating till the very end. Look at a schedule, plan what days you know you can block off a large chunk of time to work, and do so.

We here at The Typewriter don’t demand your best efforts to get us subs on time (we have a new issue out as soon as each one closes, as well), and a simple email detailing the effects of a late submission you want to be considered for the previous theme will usually suffice. We care about getting your work out there. But for that to happen, you have to first submit it. Don’t be afraid and, above all, don’t lose track of time!

We believe in you, and hope to read something of yours soon.

Yours,

The Typewriter