Meaningful deadlines are a key to moving forward with any project. A 'meaningful deadline' means there's a specific person or people waiting to see your project at a specific time - with rewards and/or consequences.

We know one writer who actually agreed to pay someone if they didn't turn in a draft by a certain date. By the way, we are totally available for that arrangement if anyone needs that kind of motivation.

There are other less extreme measures to create a meaningful deadline: