Hurry Up and Wait

 

Photo Credit: MintMiller via Pixabay

 

 

I never really appreciated the expression “hurry up and wait” until I tackled an article deadline I had this week.

 

Usually, if I have a deadline for an article, I will get started working on it as soon as possible. This is true even if I have a whole month to turn it in. (When I wrote for newspapers, I normally had a week to write and submit my articles, so I pretty much got used to this schedule.) I will start gathering information, interviewing people if this is required, doing research, outlining my piece, pre-writing the article and basically doing everything required in order to create a final draft as I move closer to the deadline.

 

With the article I had due this week, however, things did not move as quickly as I wanted them to. I already had all of my information and interviews were done. I just needed to take everything I had for the article and put them into the actual article.

 

There was one problem, though. And it was a problem that, while many writers are happy to have, this writer struggled with: Information overload. My editor wanted an article of 600 words. I had thousands of words in the interviews conducted for this article. Thankfully, when I ended up reslanting my article (which I had to do based on the content of the interviews), I did not need to use too much of the material from my research.

 

The interviews, however, were important for the article, and there was a lot of content in those interviews.

 

As it was, I ended up taking a portion of the content from those interviews and asking my editor if it could be used as a sidebar.

 

But actually writing the article? That took some time. I was basically overwhelmed by all the material gleaned from the interviews and I had to figure out how I was going to break it all down into an article of less than one thousand words.

 

Still, after a check-in from my editor, I knew I would HAVE to get past that mental block I was having from the information overload and GET TO WORK.

 

So I worked on it here and there, taking it a little at a time.

 

This seemed to be the right approach, because I found that the more I worked on putting together this article, taking the writing of it in bits and pieces, the easier it was for me to get past that sense of overwhelm and focus on taking from those interviews exactly what I needed for this article. I figured that what I didn’t use for this article could be used in another article should I choose to pursue writing a different article on the same topic (with the interviewees’ agreement to have their quotes published in a certain publication). Or at least I have those quotes on hand should I ever need to use them for a related piece in the future.

 

Thankfully, I was able to complete the writing of my article with a satisfactory word count.

 

But I wasn’t ready to tackle editing and revising it just yet.

 

Even though I was having a good day that I wanted to share about on social media – FINALLY getting through that mental block to get that article written and FINALLY finding a home for a short story I spent almost six years submitting to various publications – I wasn’t sure that would be a good idea. Why? Because there was a lapse between “finishing my article” and “submitting my article.”

 

One would think that after writing something that has a deadline, with an editor waiting in the wings, a writer would IMMEDIATELY finalize the piece and send it off, right?

 

Nope. Not me. That’s not how I work.

 

Sure, in my journalism days, I would write an article, give it a quick edit, then turn it in on the same day, but not anymore.

 

These days, I need to let a piece rest before I submit it.

 

So, basically, I had to hurry up and finish writing my article, then I had to wait before submitting it. I had to get into a different headspace before I could put my editing cap on and look at the article with a more analytical eye.

 

So, after I finished writing the article, I went on to do some other things. I checked emails, read a bunch of stuff online, got caught up on my socials, and spent some time reading an ebook I’m reviewing. I had let my editor know that I would get the article to her before the day was out, so I had some time.

 

And when I came back to the article later, after focusing my attention on other activities, I was able to edit and revise it to my satisfaction. It might not be to my editor’s satisfaction, but I felt it was good to go. THEN I submitted it.

 

I know it might appear to be counterproductive to let a piece sit for a while after writing it when it is due that same day (or even yesterday!), but in order to edit and revise successfully, a writer needs to come back to that piece with fresh eyes.

 

Of course, some editing can be done right after the writer finishes writing something, but if the writer REALLY wants that piece to be edited effectively, it’s a good idea to wait a while before tackling the editing so that it would be done with a renewed sense of focus.

 

So, when it comes to completing an assignment on the same day that it is due, a good approach is this: Hurry up and (write it then) wait (to edit it).