Can you sign your own self to a publishing deal?
Because I think that’s what I need to do.
Let me explain.
To get my novel written, I need a solid deadline but that’s okay because my life has been ruled by deadlines. I joined a local paper as a trainee journalist at 18 and since then, barely a week has gone by where I haven’t filed copy of some sort to someone.
I’m proud of the fact that I’ve never missed a deadline. But it’s amazing how much you can get done with a giant clock ticking above your head. In fact, when I think at what we used to push out on my local paper, on a daily basis, it was almost super human.
Work could be done at an incredible speed when needed. At a celebrity weekly I worked for, our magazine went to press every Friday and for some reason, that’s when all the big stars seemed to die. Sorry to be crass but it’s mostly true. I remember someone in the office exclaiming, ‘Prince is dead!’, at about 4pm on a Friday, back in 2016.
Cue collective eye-rolls from those who didn’t get it and tears from people who did. Once the news sank in, all hell broke loose. People who were walking out the door to head home for the weekend, turned on their heels to go back to their desks.
Sleeves rolled up, here we go.
Some people, like Prince (and Bowie and George Michael) are so big that they can’t possibly be ignored, especially if you work on a celebrity title.
That afternoon, a handful of pages were stripped out of the mag and then the editor divided up who would be writing what, the picture desk assembled the photos, the designers started on the layout and the subs waited for the copy to filter through.
The printers were notified of late delivery and off we went, at a million miles an hour. Less than three hours later, a solid Prince tribute issue was born.
I viscerally remember the Prince announcement because it took the wind out of my sails. I’d seen him in concert three times and had been a hardcore fan since When Doves Cry. He was a genius and his music got me through (and still does get me though) difficult times.
To this day, I will argue with my friend, Julie, about which one of us had eye contact with The Purple One, at one of his Lovesexy concerts, at Wembley Arena, in 1988. The correct answer, of course, was most definitely me.
Now, that I’m well on my way to writing my novel - having written another 1000 words over the weekend - I realise that the only thing that’s missing is a deadline.
I need one because I want to get a first draft down before the end of summer but how to up the ante when it’s me waiting on words from… me?
The stakes could literally not be lower.
I attended a book event on Friday evening and the penny dropped quite magnificently when one of the authors talked about writing through the night to hit her first draft deadline.
She talked explicitly about how many books she’s contracted to write in a year and so, implicitly, if she missed a deadline, it would in effect be a breach of that contract.
On the walk home, I mulled this over and came to the conclusion that I’ve got to get myself a contract.
So now (and bear with me on this) I have a madcap idea to ask a friend - one who hopefully knows a thing or two about this kind of stuff - to mock one up for me. It’ll be fake, of course but at the same time because it exists, it’ll also be very real.
My think is that if I’ve got a delivery date in writing, it might just give me the impetus I need to get this thing over the line.
Is this an insane idea?
Thoughts, please.
It need only be a page but it’s a page that might spawn 400 more.
And on that daft note/mote, have a wonderful week!
Lisa
No, not an insane idea - or you could make one your self. It's good to have goals for our writing. Keep going!!!!