I click the "send" button on my e-mail and my article is instantly transmitted to a magazine. Minutes later, I have a reply from the editor. It reads "Snappy writing and five days before deadline! Thanks, Bonnie. You're an editors dream."

I believe I'm a good writer, but more important, at least as far as editors are concerned, I'm a disciplined writer. I never miss a deadline. I hear other writers grousing about deadlines, even disregarding them until an unhappy editor prods them. That's a shame, because respecting deadlines can help you mature personally and professionally.

The word "deadline" can be traced back to the Civil War when prisoners were sometimes secured with nothing more than a line drawn in the dirt. Cross that line, they were told, and you're dead! I take deadlines just as seriously. Even during the most trying personal circumstances, I meet my writing commitments. Once, I even wrote a newspaper column as I sat with a dying parent. It was hard, very hard to focus my thoughts and write, but the personal strength I conjured that day translated into writing so powerful it brought my career to a new level.