Deadlines & Atmosphere

I set to work tonight on the short story.  The July deadline is quickly approaching and I have to get the 1st draft done. I don't really know how anyone else is doing but my story seems to be moving along... when I write it. I need to have it done before the end of June. Only because I want it to sit for a bit and stew before the deadline. I'd like to go back to it mid-July and edit it a bit. First... get it written.

I really need to get hold of myself. My schedule in January was working well and I must set it back up. At the moment I'm fighting unusual fatigue. Actually, I've stopped fighting it. I'm taking a nap every day that last about 2 hours and then I'm going to bed at night. I have no idea why. Thank goodness I don't have a job to worry about at this point.

The storm actually helped get me writing tonight. I like writing in rain. Tonight it gave me a scene and I wanted to get to it. So, I sat down. The storm promptly stopped. I kept writing but it wasn't as much fun. I paused in my writing to post an update of the word count. I changed the word count of my story to 8000. It was 10,000. We set a limit of 5K-10K to give everyone plenty of room and those appear to be the standard for short stories. I suspect I'll be doing good to hit 5K. I"ll get it but I think just barely.

Do you have a schedule that helps you write, keeps you on track?  Are there things like locations and atmosphere that help you focus? What deters you?