The Secret to Getting Shit Done

I was just talking to my manager about the novel I'm writing. He wanted to know how long it would take me.

I thought for half a second and said: "Three months."

I've got about 20K words written. I now have ninty days to wrap up the other 80K. But... know what? I'm pretty sure I can clear it.

One of the secrets to getting shit done is establishing deadlines. Back when I was writing for college newspapers and zines and alternative weeklies, fuckin' everything was on a deadline. Monday by three. Four o'clock today. Two days. By Friday so we can read it over the weekend.

Deadlines got beaten into me until they became part of my hardwiring. Not to say I've never missed a deadline in my life, but it's pretty rare, and then typically because of extraordinary circumstances (I bit off more than I could chew, death in the family, etc).

I've talked to a lot of people who only write when they're "in the mood." The common denominator of all these people: none of them have ever professionally sold anything.

I've sat in a room at a paper, surrounded by other people writing. Look at the clock... shit, I gotta fill another six column inches -- with something good -- in half an hour. Don't feel like writing? Motherfucker, you're gonna write.

That's how I write every day. Even if I'm drag-ass tired, I'll pretend I have to fill 500 words by ten or my ass is fired. The words get done, man.

Which is the other "secret." Work every day. I'm not even gonna call it a "secret of success." I'll never consider myself "successful," because then I'll get fucking soft, and guys like me will step over my lazy-ass corpse. Call it "getting shit done."

Hagakure is full of wisdom about getting shit done. It talks about the best way to complete a task. Should you step back and consider the various courses of action? Or dive right in? Hagakure suggests the latter in almost every case. Idea being, if you sit around and think, you're not actually getting anything done. And, the longer you think instead of acting, the more chances you give yourself to get distracted with your self-interest. What's the line between planning and procrastination? Hagakure says: let's not even find out. Think while you're doing.

On the other hand, there is such a thing as diving into the deep end and drowning, when some planning would have helped you work smarter, instead of harder. That's why you can't take Hagakure at face value; you have to give some thought to everything you read. (Which creates a bizarre loop of thinking about whether to think or not, I know... just go with it).

Okay, clock's ticking. Ninety days. Check back here on April 11 to find out if I'm talking shit about how awesome I am, or if I'm making up lame-ass excuses.

I'll offer myself one out -- if, after the writer's strike ends, I have to do a crash rewrite on RUN that'll determine whether the movie goes into production or not... you guys can make fun of me, I'm working on the script, I don't care. I wanna get a movie made.

The second out -- I die within the next ninety days.

Here we go...