There is a general perception that writers are a woolly, creative, absent-minded lot. That the creativity comes at the expense of everything else. Nothing could actually be further from the truth in my opinion, especially for Indie authors.
After all, if you want to publish something yourself, something that you can be proud of and know you did your best on, then you have to be more than just a writer. You have to be a project manager.
Indie authors are, after all, doing the jobs that would traditionally belong to several different people. Even if we outsource the elements we cannot do ourselves, for example, creating a book cover, then we still have to manage and track the people that do it for us. We cannot just amble through life writing. That alone is no longer enough.
Self-imposed deadlines are sometimes the hardest. When you are working for someone else and they set the deadline for you, then you are very much held accountable to that. The success or failure of a project is largely viewed in terms of whether or not you hit that deadline.
When the only person you are accountable to is yourself, it becomes very easy to re-negotiate. The only person you are letting down is yourself, and you’ve probably got all the reasons in the world to convince yourself that the other thing you are doing is more important. Like writing itself, it needs to become a discipline.
Over the next few months, when I have competing deadlines from other work looming, I know that the easiest deadlines for me to miss will be my own. It’s going to be a learning process to make sure I don’t sacrifice my own objectives just because I’m getting far more money from meeting somebody else’s. I know over the long term I won’t be any happier for it, but in the short term, when I’m feeling frazzled and pulled in all different directions, it will be hard to remember that.
But it is important we do. It is equally important to celebrate those successes when we don’t allow the rest of life to get in the way and stay true to the dream.
C.K. Martin / Cas Martin 
This was good motivation. Thank you 🙂
Are you a member of a writer’s group (as in: a physical, face-to-face group, not something on the Internet)? I find that having other people to read your work out to every week is a great motivator, even if there’s no actual obligation to read *every* week. And, of course, it’s a source of useful criticism.
I think that what is more important than deadlines, though, is putting aside a set time every day to write. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves, you know? Taking things one step at a time is less daunting . Of course, different things will work for different people and so on.
I’m part of a writing group but due to all our various commitments we only meet once a month. It’s still good for holding people accountable though. Interesting too that we all write different genres, so that can often give a perspective that really makes you stop and think.
I completely agree with you about every day writing. I forced myself to stick to a pretty rigid routine until now it’s just become a habit. It is hard to keep up with when I’m away from home though. Sounds like you’ve managed to develop a routine that works?