Thanks Mason! I enjoyed reading about your Fassbinder/Penman/Currey method of pushing past perfectionism — but honestly, this post was worth reading just for the photo of Fassbinder in his net shirt! Best of luck with your next set of deadlines (or lifelines?!), and I look forward to more Subtle Manoeuvres in the New Year. 🥂
Thank you, Helen, much appreciated! Fassbinder seems like the ultimate anti-perfectionist, probably a good model for a lot of us (in addition to being a style icon, obviously).
Congrats on meeting the first deadline, Mason! I know the feeling of wanting to spend more time on words. I often wish I could spend an entire week working on a single sentence--a month working on 4 sentences--a year working on 52 sentences...there's something that seems so zen about that schedule to me. Although, the reality is that I'd probably get bored. 😂
Thanks, Jillian! And, yes, it's probably a good thing that we're prevented from lingering over our work for as long as we'd like (I guess?) — though I for one would love to read the 52 sentences that you spent an entire year perfecting!
I always hated deadlines while in the middle of them, but realized after a while that they helped to motivate me and propel me forward into a state of productivity. Deadlines force me to not be such a perfectionist, and just get it done. But when I don't have a deadline, I seem to fall back into a "Getting something done today is better than nothing" sort of attitude. Those kind of projects take forever, and sometimes never get finished... So yeah... Deadlines are sometimes good.
Yes, agreed! I think, in general, my best work happens when I have a decently-long period of preparation/thinking/tinkering and *then* extreme deadline pressure. Without the deadline, I can tinker and ruminate forever . . . but without adequate preparation, the deadline doesn't usually yield anything worthwhile. So it's a balancing act for sure!
Exactly! Good preparation ensures that you don't get lost in the labyrinth while you're in the middle of it all. In fact, on a lot of projects I spend most of the time researching/dreaming and trying to get into the proper headspace to follow my vision through to the end.
Wild to have this arrive in my inbox this morning— I’m barreling towards a 12/18 deadline for my short film that I started writing two years ago, after having read Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors. Post production has been an exercise in postponement. My intuition is telling me it’s “pencils down” time. better to save some of my creative resources for the next project than polish a project to a high sheen.
Thanks, Mason! Great piece. One thing to add to your Fassbinder conversation is something that's helped me write two books with a third on the way: The hourly deadline.
Here's what I mean.
I've found that knowing when I'll STOP writing every day has really pushed me to make sure I get my daily word allotment in. I'm a morning person, and if I start writing at, say, 8, I tell myself that I will finish at 10:30, come what may, to borrow from your post.
For those two and half hours I am that much more focused on getting the work done.
To write every day you need to know when to start, when you're best. But it's just as important to give yourself a time when you'll stop writing.
I've been thinking a lot about deadlines, because they really can be a shot in the arm, and yet they aren't working for me on my current project.
What I need more than anything is momentum, and a feeling of moving towards a goal, and I think a deadline can provide that. Working on this book, though, what really gives me those things is a lifting of other responsibilities, and the sensation of complete immersion in the project for a limited period.
In a sense that is a deadline, because immersion forever with no limits wouldn't have the same effect, but it's not JUST a deadline. It's opportunity, it's spaciousness, it's focus, it's a rare gift and it draws me in to make the most of it, because it will not last long.
Belatedly: Yes! I'm realizing this month that what my latest deadlines have really given me is: permission to be selfish / single-minded / ultra-protective of my time. So I've declined holiday-party invites, completely abandoned my usual efforts to eat healthy and exercise, neglected housekeeping chores, etc., etc. It's not the way I want to live in general, but it does seem necessary for me to finish something big, like I almost have to crawl into it and live inside it. (There's a famous anecdote about Joan Didion needing to sleep in the same room as her drafts—relatable!) So I think that may be the most of important aspect of it for me: simply the ability to say to people (and to myself), Sorry, can't do that, I'm on deadline!
Thanks, Anna! And yes! Part of the pressure around the next deadline is that I'm taking a vacation over the holidays and am hell-bent on getting this next batch in before we leave (or at least before the plane lands, lol) — so I have something to look forward to for sure 🙃
Thanks Mason! I enjoyed reading about your Fassbinder/Penman/Currey method of pushing past perfectionism — but honestly, this post was worth reading just for the photo of Fassbinder in his net shirt! Best of luck with your next set of deadlines (or lifelines?!), and I look forward to more Subtle Manoeuvres in the New Year. 🥂
Thank you, Helen, much appreciated! Fassbinder seems like the ultimate anti-perfectionist, probably a good model for a lot of us (in addition to being a style icon, obviously).
Congrats on meeting the first deadline, Mason! I know the feeling of wanting to spend more time on words. I often wish I could spend an entire week working on a single sentence--a month working on 4 sentences--a year working on 52 sentences...there's something that seems so zen about that schedule to me. Although, the reality is that I'd probably get bored. 😂
Thanks, Jillian! And, yes, it's probably a good thing that we're prevented from lingering over our work for as long as we'd like (I guess?) — though I for one would love to read the 52 sentences that you spent an entire year perfecting!
I always hated deadlines while in the middle of them, but realized after a while that they helped to motivate me and propel me forward into a state of productivity. Deadlines force me to not be such a perfectionist, and just get it done. But when I don't have a deadline, I seem to fall back into a "Getting something done today is better than nothing" sort of attitude. Those kind of projects take forever, and sometimes never get finished... So yeah... Deadlines are sometimes good.
Yes, agreed! I think, in general, my best work happens when I have a decently-long period of preparation/thinking/tinkering and *then* extreme deadline pressure. Without the deadline, I can tinker and ruminate forever . . . but without adequate preparation, the deadline doesn't usually yield anything worthwhile. So it's a balancing act for sure!
Exactly! Good preparation ensures that you don't get lost in the labyrinth while you're in the middle of it all. In fact, on a lot of projects I spend most of the time researching/dreaming and trying to get into the proper headspace to follow my vision through to the end.
Wild to have this arrive in my inbox this morning— I’m barreling towards a 12/18 deadline for my short film that I started writing two years ago, after having read Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors. Post production has been an exercise in postponement. My intuition is telling me it’s “pencils down” time. better to save some of my creative resources for the next project than polish a project to a high sheen.
Thanks, Mason! Great piece. One thing to add to your Fassbinder conversation is something that's helped me write two books with a third on the way: The hourly deadline.
Here's what I mean.
I've found that knowing when I'll STOP writing every day has really pushed me to make sure I get my daily word allotment in. I'm a morning person, and if I start writing at, say, 8, I tell myself that I will finish at 10:30, come what may, to borrow from your post.
For those two and half hours I am that much more focused on getting the work done.
To write every day you need to know when to start, when you're best. But it's just as important to give yourself a time when you'll stop writing.
lol @"I'm sure stimulants were involved." Thanks for a great write-up
I've been thinking a lot about deadlines, because they really can be a shot in the arm, and yet they aren't working for me on my current project.
What I need more than anything is momentum, and a feeling of moving towards a goal, and I think a deadline can provide that. Working on this book, though, what really gives me those things is a lifting of other responsibilities, and the sensation of complete immersion in the project for a limited period.
In a sense that is a deadline, because immersion forever with no limits wouldn't have the same effect, but it's not JUST a deadline. It's opportunity, it's spaciousness, it's focus, it's a rare gift and it draws me in to make the most of it, because it will not last long.
Belatedly: Yes! I'm realizing this month that what my latest deadlines have really given me is: permission to be selfish / single-minded / ultra-protective of my time. So I've declined holiday-party invites, completely abandoned my usual efforts to eat healthy and exercise, neglected housekeeping chores, etc., etc. It's not the way I want to live in general, but it does seem necessary for me to finish something big, like I almost have to crawl into it and live inside it. (There's a famous anecdote about Joan Didion needing to sleep in the same room as her drafts—relatable!) So I think that may be the most of important aspect of it for me: simply the ability to say to people (and to myself), Sorry, can't do that, I'm on deadline!
All I want for Christmas is crushing deadlines!! ;) Thank you for this Mason, and hope that you have some light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks, Anna! And yes! Part of the pressure around the next deadline is that I'm taking a vacation over the holidays and am hell-bent on getting this next batch in before we leave (or at least before the plane lands, lol) — so I have something to look forward to for sure 🙃
Bozo 😅
🤡
Haha