Interactive Deadline Calendar

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.

August 2024

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
« Jul				Sep »
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28 August, 28 2024 Jewelweed in Bloom   One of the things a great percentage of the country has in common right now is that the jewelweed is in bloom. You know jewel-weed, it’s lovely yellow and orange flowers seeming to dangle off the stems. Ranging  throughout the United States with the exception of Wyoming, Montana, and the southwest, it actually has two flowers, the obvious one with the spur on the end and a petal-less one that never opens, from which the plant gets its other name, touch-me-not, which, if touched at the right time, explosively splits open dispersing tiny seeds several feet in all directions. Beloved by pollinators such as hummingbirds, moths and butterflies, the stamens of the plant dust them with pollen as they seek the nectar deep in the trumpet cup of the flower. Jewelweed can grow up to five feet in height and I’ve read that it is thought to be an effective remedy for Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, Stinging nettles as well as a variety of insect bites. Read up before use.	29 August, 29 2024 A Jewel by the Side of the Road One of the things a great percentage of the country has in common right now is that the jewel weed is in bloom; its lovely yellow and orange flowers seem to dangle off the stems. Ranging  throughout the United States with the exception of Wyoming, Montana, and the southwest, it actually has two flowers, the obvious one with the spur on the end and a petal-less one that never opens, from which the plant gets its other name, touch-me-not, which, if touched at the right time, explosively splits open dispersing tiny seeds several feet in all directions. Beloved by pollinators such as hummingbirds, moths and butterflies, the stamens of the plant dust them with pollen as they seek the nectar deep in the trumpet cup of the flower. I’ve read that it is thought to be an effective remedy for Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, Stinging nettles as well as a variety of insect bites. Got a story?	30	31 August, 31 2024 A Pleasurable Traffic Jam Ah, traffic. Most of us hate it, unless we are talking about bird traffic, and we are today, since it’s that time of year again when the birds are on the move. They’ve actually been at it for a while, though it’s just becoming noticeable in most regions of the country –as well as online. Haven’t checked out an online bird site yet? It’s easy. Type in the name of your town, and “bird migration” and you’ll be amazed y what’s there. Birds follow flyways, and there is a flyway system, which incudes all the routes followed by migratory birds. These are numerous, and while some of them are simple and easily traced, others are extremely complicated. Differences in distance traveled, in time of starting, in speed of flight, in geographical position, in the latitude of the breeding and wintering grounds and in other factors all contribute to great diversity. And here is an amazing fact: No two species follow exactly the same path from beginning to end. Read up on flyways. You’ll be glad you did.

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.