What I Learned From Writing My First 15k Word Article
We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare. How the hare was going to win the race given that he was unarguably faster. And had covered a reasonable distance in the race that he thought he could take a nap, wake up and still beat the tortoise.
But guess what? The tortoise slowly crawled from the starting line until he got to the finish line and won the race. To everyone's surprise, including the hare.
In life, I have been both the hare and the tortoise. I'll tell you how. My friend and I had to complete 14 x 1000 word articles within a week, so we split the work in half.
Unfortunately, we are master procrastinators and didn't start working until a day before our deadline. I completed 5 articles in one night. And she had only done about 3. I felt so confident I would finish the remaining 2 before it was time to submit.
Did I finish? I didn't. I only finished one more article feeling very exhausted before I passed out. And had to submit my article the next day. While my friend had completed her 7 articles in time for the deadline.
On the 18th of August, I was awarded a contract to write a 12k-13k word article. I like to call it an ebook because of how long it is. And my deadline to complete the project was 2 weeks.
Usually, I operate as a powerhouse. I research on a topic and then type away until my work is done and I'm ready to edit. I told myself if I could finish at least 2k words a day, I'd be able to complete the job in ample time and impress my client.
Here's what happened. On the first day I was ready to start working I only completed 1000 words. And the next day I finished less than that before feeling worn out. I knew if I continued like this I wouldn't be able to meet up with my deadline. Not the one the client gave me, but the one I had set up for myself.
So instead of forcing myself to act like the machine that I'm not, I accepted my situation. That I didn't have the discipline to complete so much work in so little time. But I did have enough discipline to get some work done each day.
Every day I would pick up that article and just type until I didn't feel like doing it anymore. And on days when I felt I was tired of writing a particular section and not the entire article itself, I would simply abandon that section and start a new one.
This must sound like madness to a lot of people. Imagine getting bored with your introduction so you just skip to the end and write your conclusion. Or getting tired of the 3rd topic so you hurdle yourself to topic 11.
I continued like this every day. Contributing as much as my willpower allowed. And on the day of my deadline, I was with a finished and edited document ready for review.
What I Learned from these 2 Events
- Almost crossing the finish line isn’t the same as crossing the finish line. And seeing the finish line isn’t a reason to slow down. It’s a reminder to keep pushing because you’re almost there.
- Little drops of water make an ocean. By writing 500-1000 words a day I was able to finish the article above my word count in time to beat my deadline.
- Working haphazardly is still working. Or maybe I should say being flexible in your work. If I had tried to write to the article in the order it was in, I don’t think I would’ve finished in time. My ability to juggle different sections allowed me to work comfortably and finish on time.
