An Elemental Lesson in Deadlines

Here’s why I haven’t posted for a few days. I write freelance for a little magazine that is published in tandem with a regional newspaper here in Florida. I have an article coming out in their June issue. The editor, whom I’ve known for many years, wanted another article for the next issue.

I stupidly assumed she meant the next issue after the one in which I already have an article appearing, which would be August. What she actually meant was the literal next issue — June. So, naturally, when she asked me in late May how it was coming, I didn’t think much of it — until she followed up with “because I want to be sure I can count on it for June.”

As the correct answer to her initial question was “since it’s not being printed until August, I haven’t started writing it yet,” I found myself in something of a bind, which I’m hastening to correct.

To complicate matters, we had planned the new story about the controversy surrounding some proposed legislation — which, two weeks after she hired me to write about it, died in committee. We’ve solved that, though, by coming up with a related angle that does not render meaningless the research I had done (well, I’d gotten that far anyway!).

The lesson for today — know when your deadline is!

~ by seriouswriter on June 5, 2007.