Welcome to my Deadline Formula Calendar, where you are going to learn how to choose and meet writing deadlines, makes those deadlines every time and finally establish real accountability for your writing. Here’s how: Use your cursor to hover over a date. See the description of something that happened on this date? These are some of my favorite emotional high holy days of the year.
What are your emotional high holy days? First read through some of mine, think about that question and then keep reading below the calendar.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jan | Mar » | |||||
| 1 | 2February, 2 2024Groundhog DayAh, Punxsutawney Phil. You’ve gotta love him. He’s a true American icon. Have you got a Ground Hog Day story? Remember to think in propinquities. What do I mean by that? See here. | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9February, 9 2024All Weather, All the TimeIt was on this day in 1870 that Congress authorized one of those national offices whose information we use every single day, the National Weather Service. Located at www.weather.gov, it’s a fine place to add to your research sites when writing memoir. You do remember that you’ve got to do research when writing memoir, yes? | 10February, 10 2024Lunar New YearIt’s the new year on the Chinese calendar. It will include excitement, unpredictability, exhilaration and intensity. Have you ever been to a Chinese New Year celebration? It might be the setting for a fine essay. But do remember to first figure out what the essay is about. | 11 |
12February, 12 2024Abe Lincoln BornOn this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born. Do you have a Lincoln story? For dates like this, it’s a good idea to do some research and learn something new. | 13 | 14February, 14 2024Valentine’s DayOk, so nearly everyone celebrates this. How to make this story yours, while making it interesting to readers? Follow this, an essential rule of writing memoir. | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24February, 24 2024Full Snow MoonIt’s February’s full Moon, known as the Full Snow Moon. We take our names from the Native American tradition. Got a winter full moon story? Remember what memoir is supposed to be, as well as what it’s not. | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29February, 29 2024Leap DayOK. Everyone loves this. Have you got a Leap Day or Leap Year story? How to make it yours, while making it interesting to others? Follow this, an essential rule of memoir. |
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All of our high emotional holidays come to us yearly, and all of them present opportunities for you to write Op-eds, personal essays, posts for your blog or guest posts on some larger public blog. And if you write those pieces well enough, people will notice and you’ll develop a following, perhaps even in the form of a publisher or an agent, and that book you’ve always wanted to write will get written.
How to Use this Deadline Calendar
Here’s the key to this calendar: Learning how to choose and meet writing deadlines begins with knowing that you need to write those pieces in advance of the event. So choose one date from here — or from your own year — but choose one that gives you the time to write and submit to a large online or print publication.
Let’s give it three months. Here’s why: You’re busy. Perhaps you need to learn now to write an op-ed or how to construct a personal essay (have you seen my recorded class on the latter?). Perhaps you are writing a book-length memoir from which you can extract a short section to turn into an op-ed or essay. Even better. Best yet, in fact. Two of my four books came from shorter pieces I wrote and published, both arguing what I believed about something large but doing so in a small format. Both led to profitable book contracts. Want the same success? Of course you do.
Would you like more on how to choose and meet deadlines? I have a course for that. Check it out here.
