One of the pressures of being on “assignment” is getting the job done on time. It requires a little foresight and maybe planning. If one is very busy it takes astute time management around other activities, work and social life. If one has the time, being on assignment should be a breeze, but then again who has that kind of time these days? For most, writing on assignment requires time management to get the job done. One thing the publisher does is penalize writers if they don’t hand the work in on time. It may be a loss of some of the fee or you forfeit the whole fee if the work is too late. The publisher has assigned the work and needs it, so brings some sort of “incentive” to get it done, like losing some of your fee which is a good way for them to see the work on time. For busy writers sacrificing one assignment for a better one may be the way if one can’t fit it in. It may mean the writer loses with one publisher, but hopes to make up for it with a better one, or thinks it’s a better one.
Talking Writing 
This is great advice for fiction writing, as I imagine it can be quite a challenge if we don’t have inspiration to work with. I was going to say, “I wish I had a publisher breathing down my neck,” but my writing assignments are related to academic research. There is always something to base my writing on. One important incentive I get is research grants. In graduate school I used to complete my graded coursework assignments about two weeks early. So, I already have a habit of getting things done in time. Nowadays, I have months to prepare and I always try to get the hard work done at the earliest so I can spend more time polishing up the final draft.
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Thanks. Don’t have a problem with inspiration. What you are doing sounds great. Like you, my aim is to get the job done well. I find assignments are great for that.
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Amazing. More power to you, Pete. Keep up the great work on your blog. xoxo
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Would have liked to have responded with more before, but have my reasons. You are welcome to comment more. You must chip in with another comment here or there. I will endeavor to reply in a timely and considered manner.
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Again, sorry about the delay in reply to this, without sounding like a broken record. Thanks for your time. Appreciated. I, too, tried to get my work done in advance at school. I strived for it as it meant, for me, i could get it out of the way, and having dedicated myself to the job at hand, I needn’t worry about the outcome. So, I thought, but mostly it was good news when the marks came in. My writing assignments have stopped now.
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