Deadline Doom: How to Write Smart, Not Frantic

By Sean Brenner

In my last blog post, I wrote about how procrastination isn’t always a bad thing; sometimes, you can even use it to your advantage. 

But if you procrastinate too much, you could end up not having enough time to complete your manuscript before the deadline. That’s a panic scenario, and one that many writers find themselves in sooner or later. 

Sometimes you can get an extension on the deadline. When that’s an option, take it. Rushing to complete a manuscript is bad for both your finished product and your mental health. It’s better to admit that you need more time when it’s available. 

But other times, deadlines are inflexible, and you’ll be left with no choice but to get as much writing done before the clock runs out. When that happens, you need to triage your writing. In this post, I’ll share four of my most useful methods for doing so.

Don’t Panic

This first tip is perhaps the most important: Don’t panic. You don’t have time to. Focus on the work, be as productive as you can, and don’t become paralyzed worrying about the situation. Get it done, and sort out the rest later.

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Trim the Fat

Your first step is to cut nonessentials from your manuscript. You want to reduce the work you have to finish by the deadline as much as possible. 

Tangents and secondary topics should be first on the chopping block. Then, if you had intended to provide multiple examples or counterarguments to support your main point, cut some of them. Finally, condense and combine the essential parts of your manuscript. Get rid of redundant sections and ideas. This will also help your most important ideas stand out.

This step is especially important if you haven’t started writing at all. If your manuscript is still just an outline, then you have more freedom to cut. If you’ve already started writing, apply this step to the sections you haven’t finished yet. If you have time at the end, you can review the previously written sections.

Focus on the Essentials

As I’ve written about before, you don’t have to write a manuscript in order. When you’re pressed for time, try writing the sections in order of importance, tackling your most essential points first. That way, if you run out of time, the parts of your manuscript that get left out or that end up the most rushed are the ones that are less important.

In particular, you want to focus on the main point of your manuscript. Spend what time you have giving the reader the clearest picture possible of what you’re trying to say. Tackle everything that’s necessary for your reader to understand the main point, and then build support for it. 

Get It Done

While there are exceptions to this tip, it’s usually better to submit a manuscript with rough writing that covers all its important topics than one that’s better written but missing important topics. Your reader is much more likely to notice that your manuscript is incomplete than that its writing is a little rougher than it could be. 

Make sure that your manuscript has a beginning, middle, and end. Don’t leave your important points hanging. Only then should you polish up your writing—if you have time. 

While it can be a little painful to submit something you know isn’t your best work, when you’re working under severe time constraints, getting the manuscript done is the goal, not making it perfect. 

Perfect is the enemy of done, especially when you’ve got a deadline. Keep your focus where it’s needed most—on getting through the crunch.