If You Give a Writer a Deadline

If you give a writer a deadline, he is going to open a document to start typing.

Once he opens the document, he will remember he needs to check social media to make sure he hasn’t missed something important.

While on social media, the writer will find a British comedy clip. He will watch the video, laugh, and then wonder who that actor was in the background. He will do a search and go through several websites to find out the actor starred in a movie the writer had seen as a teenager.

Thinking about his teen years, he will wonder about one of his former classmates. The writer will go back to social media to look up his old friend.

The writer will see an ad for food and realize he is hungry. He will leave the keyboard to go to the kitchen for a snack. While preparing his snack, he will see his lunch bag and remember he needs to pack his lunch for his day job the next day. He will look around the kitchen for something to include.

While he is looking for something for lunch, the writer will notice he is running out of different foods. He will grab paper and pen and make a store list. He will forget about packing lunch and grab his snack.

Since he doesn’t want to get food on his keyboard, the writer will turn on the television to watch a quick episode of a classic sitcom. When the show goes off, the writer will wonder how many years the show lasted and will get on the internet. While typing in the search engine, he will remember his deadline.

The writer will go back to his document and begin typing again. He will write a few paragraphs and decide he hates what he has written. He will wonder what the weather is going to be like the next day, so he will check his weather app and then plan his clothes for the next day.

Back at the keyboard, the writer will open another document and start over after saving the horrible piece, because he never knows when he will want to go back to it to improve it.

He will get inspired with the new document and write words, words, and more words. He will take a break to check his email. He will open an email from his editor, reminding him of his deadline. The writer will go back to his document and write more words, words, and words.

If you give a writer a deadline, he will finish. Eventually.

Carlton Hughes wears many hats. By day, he’s a professor of communication at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he does object lessons and songs with motions as Children’s Pastor of Lynch Church of God. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul and several devotional books from Worthy Publishing—Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and Everyday Grace for Men. Carlton and his wife Kathy have two college-age sons, Noah and Ethan, whom he loved reading to when they were younger. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and is a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas child. Carlton is represented by Cyle Young of Hartline Literary Agency.