On Writing 20 Articles in One Day
Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009
by Nancy Daniels
Voice Dynamic
3 months ago, I accepted a challenge to write 100 articles in 100 days. I thought this would be a positive experience because my corporate training is practically non-existent due to the economy and I felt that the exposure would increase traffic to my website thereby increasing my business. So here I was entered into a contest with 100 articles due by the 1 st of July. Of course, by the time I received the email notice announcing this contest, I was already 12 articles behind. It was early April and I had an extensive garden that needed my attention. In addition, I had taken a part-time job at a garden center; and, I had a son who was graduating from college in May and entering Special Forces at the end of June. No problem, I thought to myself. This can be done.
The difficulty for me was not that I didn't have time to create more articles; but, more importantly, that I didn't have time to read your articles and comment. I knew that I couldn't respond to even one article without slighting everyone else.
A few weeks ago, Teresa sent me an email which tickled me to no end. It was heartwarming to hear from someone at SW.
So, I decided that my first article upon returning to SW should not be about writing 100 articles in 100 days but about writing 20 articles in one day.
During April and May, I managed to pen between 5 and 6 per week which kept me continually in the minus category. Here I was writing and writing and writing and not keeping track because the thought in the back of my mind was that I still had time. I could still finish it. (I live by that thought -- there is still more time.)
June arrived and my son was scheduled for the removal of his impacted wisdom teeth exactly 3 weeks prior to his departure for Fort Benning in Georgia . Time was speeding by and the healing process with Andrei was not quite as fast as we would have liked. Then the Army, in its infinite wisdom, moved his departure date ahead by 5 days. We were sweating at this point because the boy was still on Penicillin and narcotic pain killers; he was unable to chew solid foods; and, at this stage I was not writing anything! The oral surgeon reassured him that the pain he was experiencing on the one side of his jaw was muscular due to the removal of bone, assuring him that it would get better. The surgeon was correct and I started writing again.
Finally came his day of departure. Through tearful goodbyes I took him to his recruitment office on a Sunday night. He was to stay in a hotel that evening and then he would be bused up to Ft. Dix the following morning for some final testing. Later that evening, he was to fly from Philadelphia to Georgia .
With his phone call from Ft. Dix the next day at 6:00 am , Andrei informed me that his departure had been moved back by two days because the recruiter had mistakenly scheduled him to fly out of Harrisburg , PA and not Philly. So we had 2 more days of waiting, 2 more days of angst, and
then another farewell (which was a lot easier than the first one). At last he was off. Obviously I did not write during those days of unease either.
In trying to settle my life back to normal, I still had 30 some articles to write and a little more than a week to do it. I wrote 4 articles one day, missed a day or two and then another 3. Slowly I was catching up but I was also beginning to realize that I probably would not accomplish my goal. I woke up on June 30 and asked myself if I could accept the fact that I would not succeed in this endeavor and I didn't like the answer. So I cleared my schedule for the next 24 hours and decided to complete my mission.
The more I wrote, the more ideas I came up with. The more I wrote, the faster I got. The more I wrote, the easier it got. I finished the assignment, submitted the articles and proceeded to take a week off from writing.
What did I learn from this experience? That I'm no longer 30 years old; heavens, I'm no longer 40; for crying out loud, I'm not even 50 anymore! However, I am back; I am writing; my garden is glorious; my son is loving and hating Boot Camp; and, life is great!
Stay tuned, dear friends, cause I've got a goodie which I'll be submitting next week. You didn't really think I could be quiet about the American way of life for that long now, did you?
This Article has been viewed 1,219 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsThanks for a very inspirational and motivating story.
Very impressive, I am getting into the groove with my writing. I am looking forward to reading more and checking out your website.James,Thank you and, by the way, I just read one of your articles (and plan to read more) because I wanted to learn more about you so I chose your Obama..Joe the Plumber. You write very, very well and I enjoyed it immensely.Would love to see more frequent articles from you -- hint, hint?Nancy
Very entertaining Nancy. Now you know that it does not matter if you are in your tender teens, your roaring twenties, your tandalizing thirties, your feeling fine forties, your new found fifties, your nifty sixties, your sit down seventies, your aching eighties, your nostalgic nineties, or your centennial one-hundreds. You were determined and will continue to be determined to write.Thank you,Not sure what to call you but no matter what age my body may be, I still feel like I'm in my 20's. And, I know I am not alone in that thought.Nancy
When I woke up I was 47 when I decided to pull down the fence I was 27 when I went to bed that night I felt 87. Somehow my mind and body have 2 different ages....SMILE... Watch it Robin, they call that Alzeheimer. I had to add it.Robin,That is so funny! Yes, you are right. I know it well!Nancy
Well written, but more of a Blog than an article?James,Thank you for reading my article. Here at SW, we do a lot of this sort of thing. Part of the reason is that we have made friends through out writing so some of what you may read, may well be more like a blog. That's the beauty of SW. We're interested in hearing about what our writers are doing as well as what they are writing. It gives us much more insight about each other.Nancy
I found this to be a delightful article. You write from your passion for life. Isn't it great that writing can be such wonderful therapy. No wonder people have kept diaries and journals for centuries.God bless and keep you and your family!Glen,Thank you. Your words are so kind. I can add nothing else.Nancy
Nancy, as a professional writer myself I am all too aware of the pressures involved in penning anything. I think your article is truly inspirational. Loved it!Alisa,Thank you for your kind words. Not bad coming from a professional!Nancy
Interesting article about writing 20 articles in one day. I'm curious....did it draw more traffic to your site?In a word? No. (Also, the last 20 were accepted and posted within a 2 - 3 day timeframe. That can be good by maybe not.) I possibly drew a few more visitors but most of my traffic comes from keywords. I had a great webmaster back in '99 and I have super placement on the various search engines for voice training and voice improvement. I am blessed in that respect.Thank you for reading this,Nancy
Quite often other committments take us away from our writing for Searchwarp. I miss it when I'm gone, but recently I have had many things happening in my life that took me away from reading and writing. Even now, I must stop and get back to my packing for our move. But as always, when a member is gone for awhile they are missed by the rest. I'm glad things worked out so well for you and you managed to come back with a vengenance. Good luck and best wishes.Great article.SandraSandra,Thank you for taking a few moments to read this. Where are you moving to or is it a vacation for which you are packing? I've been out of the loop for quite a while. I have promised myself I will take 1 day and just read past articles. (Considering I wrote 20 in 1 day, I am confident I can read many more than that and discover what I have missed!Best of luck to you in your packing,Nancy
Great article. Well done.I would love to write 100 articles in 100 days but frankly I sometimes struggle to get one article a week for my various columns.Thank you Connor,I know. Sometimes it is a struggle. In fact for 1 website, I don't know what else to say as I have said it all before; however, rewriting and retitling is what it is all about. (Also interesting to see which titles brought the most readers.)Thanks for commenting,Nancy
More comments
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.