Barbara J. Hamby

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Deadlines or Dead Lines

About eight or nine years ago I went to a writing workshop in Yachats where a newspaper columnist made a presentation. I got all excited about writing a column, went home and wrote a few for practice, and then started thinking about it. I faced the fact that I hate deadlines. Why would I take on such a project when I’m retiring and easing into my own schedule after years of working for others, I asked myself. That ambition died.

Yet here I am, years later, writing a blurb for a blog almost daily. A column would likely only have to be weekly or monthly. Because my daily deadline is self-imposed, it doesn’t seem as onerous as it would if it were set by an editor. I am amazed that I can sit down and write a blog entry nearly every day. Some days the deadline results in somewhat dead lines, but I can almost always come up with something.

Somewhere I have a notebook with a few pages of writing ideas that I’ve jotted down in case I ever run out of new ones. I don’t know where it is, but I suppose if I were desperate I could find it.

Writing about Valentine’s Day I’ll leave to other writers and just close by hoping your day was a happy one.