The contact is MIA, your computer crashed or you just totally flaked. You're about to do one of the worst things a freelancer can do: miss a deadline.

"If your freelancer misses a deadline, you'll basically never work with that person again," says Eric Gillin, Entertainment Editor at Maxim. (So tell us how you really feel, Eric.) The good news is, though, is that if you think you might be about to miss a deadline, opening up and communicating can save everyone a world of pain.

"The minute you think you could miss your deadline, call your editor ASAP," advises Gillin. "I think missing your deadline to some writers is like when you're a kid and you spill paint in the house and don't want to tell your parents. Meanwhile, the parents are so used to cleaning up the water-based paint, but by the time they find out about it, it's soaked through the carpet and then they get really mad. Long story short, it's worse if you don't tell."

"It helps if you can say why you're going to miss your deadline," says Chicago freelancer Ann Logue. "Sometimes I'm missing just one source or one sidebar, and I'll ask the editor if she wants the story up to that point or if she wants to wait a day or two. Or, if the story is a mess, I'll ask the editor if I should send it as-is on deadline or if I should take a day to clean it up. Most editors pad their schedules, but not all do, and they do by different amounts. It's rarely a crisis if you miss a deadline, but you have to let the editor know where things stand. Inevitably, the day you assume that Monday morning is the same thing as Friday afternoon is the day it turns out that something has to be distributed for use at a board meeting on Saturday morning."

"The best thing to do is anticipate. If your editor assigns a date that is very busy for you (you have other stuff due that week or a big work thing coming up), speak up right away. Politely say that you'd prefer TK date (no more than a week later, ideally), and would that be a problem? Usually, that's fine," says Melissa Walker, senior editor at ElleGirl and occasional freelancer herself. "I myself have missed a deadline, but I always let the editor know at least a few days in advance that I'm going to miss it--NEVER tell her day-of-deadline that you won't make it. That is sooooo lame."

Of course, the best thing to do always is to make your deadlines. "Not only will you be used again," says Gillin, "but you'll be recommended to other editors as well."