May 5, 2025

S#!tty Writing and the Real Real Deadlines

Welcome back!

Hope you had a great couple of weeks and that you did some things that help you feel alive and free of existential terror! I was lucky enough to keep the horrors at bay with a bunch of cool stuff this past fornight:

Othello with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal - Fun to see these powerhouses battle it out on stage. I love both of those actors and they brought the heat. I don’t know if this Shakespeare guy is any good, time will tell.

Sinners - I was blown away by this film. Everything about it worked for me, and there are transcendent moments that remind me why I fell in love with movies in the first place.

Thunderbolts* - I’d heard the hype, and admittedly it’s the first superhero film I was psyched to see in a while, but I kept my expectations low. They killed it. Felt like the early days of the MCU where character was prioritized over spectacle.

The Blue Prince - If you are a gamer who is into thoughtful, roguelite puzzle games, just buy this. Don’t read about it. Buy it. It’s great.

So all you did was goof off for two weeks?! Cool. Cool… are you gonna talk about writing?

Despite being a writer who has lived by a calendar for decades, I suck when it comes to looking at said calendar. Like, it’s bad. I forget everything, including but not limited to birthdays, vacations, conventions, doctor appointments, holidays, the Real ID deadline, my wedding anniversary and the literal days of the week. Today’s a perfect example: I forgot that today was Monday and that it was newsletter day. Double whammy.

However, you are in possession of said newsletter, because I made a commitment to you and myself to send it out every two weeks. How? Because I bookend my writing process with two critical components: I write s#!tty on purpose in order to keep a deadline that I set.

The S#!t Draft: My first line of defense against writers’ block

If I’m in a jam or having trouble starting, my best trick is to give myself permission to write a terrible, unreadable piece of slop. This is even before what some writers call the “vomit draft”. I am talking about a stream-of-consciousness whose entire point is to get my ass in the chair and my fingers moving. I have given out this advice for many years, and it garners looks of confusion on new writers’ faces. Something does not compute about a pro-tip that’s about being the literal opposite of professional. Am I out to sabotage your career!?

I said write poorly on purpose - I didn’t say send it in.

Here’s the first line of the newsletter that I wrote a few hours before hitting send (edited only for the faint of heart):

Good job dips#!t. You started a newsletter and now here you are writing on the day it ships writing instead of four days ago when you were playing Blue Prince instead of working. So what now you a$$hole? Well I guess I start with Hello and maybe talk about the writers block that got me here in the first place…

Writer’s Block is almost always rooted in fear. Fear of failure, of rejection, of looking stupid or inadequate. Even after almost thirty years as a pro I get caught up in this head game, but this technique is my key to getting over it quickly. When you give yourself the permission to do “bad work” that no one will ever see, the words will flow because in a very short period of time your brain will get bored of writing poorly. Real thoughts form. That idea you’ve been struggling to articulate will emerge in print and voila! The s#!tty draft is a lot less s#!tty. Then, you apply your craft and fix it.

You cannot fix a blank page. You can fix a s#itty one.

Cool, cool… but wouldn’t one just write bad drafts forever? Yes, which is why we need deadlines.

Deadlines kickstart commitment

This may be backwards for you, but I’ve come to realize that I need a deadline as a tool to build structure in my writing life. I talk a lot about making writing time sacred, and while that sounds noble, sometimes it’s not easy to make that commitment. For me, the deadline helps— the real real deadline.

Aren’t all deadlines real?

Some of them are. A comic like Amazing Spider-Man ships every two weeks. I have to get that script to the editor and then to multiple artists so that they can draw the books and ship them on time. Those are real deadlines and if I miss them you don’t get a comic and I get fired.

But if you are just starting out on your own creative journey, or working on a passion project, you likely don’t have someone telling you when something is due. It’s very easy to put off work that matters because “there is no deadline.”

For me that is a recipe for procrastination. So, I make my deadline. The real real one. The one where missing it feels worse than whatever pain it takes to get there. It’s as much about a time and place as it is a statement to the unforgiving universe that I take my work seriously.

A few years back I wanted to improve my photography, so I took on the 365 challenge of a photo a day. No matter what, I had to post by midnight. No one cared. No one was out there looking for my photos. I just wanted to get better at photography. Having the nightly deadline forced me to make a promise to myself - to get a photo out no matter what…

And I did.

You can do it too… start with some s#!t and a real real deadline.

See you in two weeks, next time with BTS of both Spider-Man and Spidey vs. Godzilla!

-JK

Books & Appearances:

Comics!

The Amazing Spider-Man #3 - On sale 5/7

The Amazing Spider-Man #4 - On sale 5/21

The Amazing Spider-Man #5 - FOC today 5/5 - On sale 6/4

The Amazing Spider-Man #6 - FOC 5/19 - On sale 6/18

Immortal Sergeant - Order from your LCS!

I Kill Giants - Order from your LCS!

Appearances!

Phillipsburg Comic-Con - 5/10

Hurricon - 6/14

Heroes Con - 6/20-6/22

Terrificon - 8/8-8/10