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17 Oct 10 Freelance Writing – How to Meet Tight Deadlines

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

                                                                 — The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Like the celebrated science fiction writer Douglas Adams I too love the whooshing sound made by a deadline when it passes by. But my clients do not share this view, and I am sure, neither does yours. And thus we are forced to work around time. But despite all our good intentions, we fail to meet deadlines, at time.

This particular problem chases many freelance writers, and quite many of them fail to out-speed it, which leaves them panting and gasping for more air. And at this point they wonder — is it possible humanly possible to meet the deadline?

Because of dejection, they get no as an answer despite the fact that deep in their hearts they know it is possible. This article is for those people. It will help them manage their deadlines, and if you are one of them then for sure, you will stop fearing deadlines after reading this.

Do not chew more than you can swallow

I know this is oft quoted maxim, but still it is not oft used. People, more often than we think is possible, end up taking more than mouthful. And this cannot be truer for anyone than for a freelance writer. Partly because of greed, and partly due to morbid fear of losing a client, a freelance writer ends up taking more projects than he can finish in a day.

Allocate adequate time

This is another problem. In a rush to convince oneself of having free time available for one more client, a freelance writer often end up allocating adequate time to a project, in the planning phase, which come to haunt him when he starts working on it.

Cannot say no

This is another reason behind a freelance writer’s failure to meet the deadline. It is the fear of losing a client, a freelance writer end up accepting unrealistic deadline, which they can never meet.

These are the three main reasons why you are constantly behind your deadlines. Remove them from your daily routine, and you will always be on time.

Tags: Adequate Time, Chases, Dejection, Douglas Adams, , , , , Good Intentions, , , , Hitch Hiker, Maxim, , , Planning Phase, , Science Fiction Writer,

08 Oct 09 Why Story Matters?

The power of a story lies in its appeal to the human emotions. If the story is good then it makes us empathize with the characters. We feel the pain and pleasure of the hero. Can you connect with a PowerPoint presentation at the same level? Can you empathize with the data cells of an Excel sheet?

This is not hard to do. It is impossible to do, until and unless you are the paranoid Marvin, a crazy robot from Douglas Adams’ famous book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, who often wondered about the meaning of life

Story matters because this is what we understand. Our mind can only process and make sense of things or topics that have some relation with the knowledge we already posses, and a story is a channel that helps in forming this relation. Our mind is not a computer or any data processing device designed to process unrelated information or to churn up numbers.

This is the reason why marketing communications aim to build a story –not an Excel sheet— around the product it attempts to sell. Story is what gives lifeblood to ad campaigns, charity drives, fund raising, and sports event. No one watches any sports event for the numbers, and in the real sense no one cares about the numbers. People go crazy about sports because they witness a story getting unfolded in front of them, of which their favorite sports player is a hero.

In the yester years, there was no PowerPoint presentations or Excel s sheets (I know it is kind of hard to believe now, but it is true), but people still manages to communicate values, rituals, goals, ambitions, and sense of duty to the coming generation, almost without any lost of data during the transfer. This is what provided the base for every written book that we have. Story matters because it is just because of the story that we are what we are.

Tags: , Charity Drives, Coming Generation, Data Cells, Data Processing, Douglas Adams, Excel Sheet, , , Hitchhiker, Human Emotions, , Marketing Communications, Meaning Of Life, Pain And Pleasure, , , Sense Of Duty, Sports Event, Yester Years

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