How deadlines make you achieve more than you believe you can

I have moved flats this weekend so life is in chaos in a good way 😉 However the blogging has taken a hit, especially as my wireless not working – I resorted to buying an ethernet cable today as opposed to arguing with O2 wireless!

I am loving though the views of sunsets from my new balcony and I look at the lit up Post Office Tower with the delight of a farmer seeing his new bull.  I have really come to realise how much of a town girl I am. I love walking home through Soho and Covent Garden; the crazies, the drunks, even the cobblestones that catch my heels, snapping at them like little mice.

It is good for me this move though, somehow despite my cat having a seizure today ;-(( I also managed to dig out my first novel (it is on its 5th draft) and has never been sent anywhere bar I think three friends. There was a Marie Claire contemporary women’s fiction competition wanting the first 6000 words and then an outline of the rest. Well I have the entire 89,000 word novel completed. I started it in 2008 during a NaNoWriMo (National Novel writing month) where people across the world all aim to write 50,000 words in a month so 1667 words per day. I started on the 11th November when I had the thought for a novel but then in googling how many words is a novel stumbled across NaNoWriMo. Since then I have redrafted it twice and the front end 3 more times.

I wasn’t sure which front end to send the ‘riskier’ one in my eyes or the original starting point. But then I remembered Niki Flacks, the acting coach saying to me ‘acting is a risky business’ so thus I thought I need to do what feels better for me. So I wrote a 2 page synopsis, sent the first 6000 words and pressed the send button.  It was today or never, the deadline was immutable. A little like Saturday when mid packing I was asked to be in a short so somehow found 8 hours to film a short with Neil Barrett, below is my ‘film family’ NOTE this is fake, I am neither married nor have kids but guess this pic proves why people keep casting me as a mum!

My first ever podcast interview was with Jason Hewitt, the about to be published author with a huge 2 book deal for Spring 2014 and the advice that really stuck with me was ‘You have got to hit send’. So I did, mid learning The Seagull and watching over my very ill cat, I threw something together and kicked it out the door.

Listen to the podcast & full transcript with Jason Hewiit on his long journey to getting a publishing deal

Post on the superpowers of deadlines

I am also aware that I have this weekend my second coaching session with Ryan Lock and what with the move, packing, unpacking, filming and learning scripts I have not done anywhere near enough work there ahead of our next live coaching session. He sending me gentle emails re how I am doing  and about our next session. Basically he is being a brilliant coach but I have a very full plate, I know though I will pull some rabbits out the bag for him 😉 I have to.

@RyanJamesLock

Podcast coachins session on how to start promoting yourself and stop holding yourself back