There’s nothing worse than those guys who sit and give you advice, but seem to forget it all when they themselves run into the same problem they have been advising about. Like the guys who, with supreme confidence, tell you exactly how to pick up girls but always seem to be the ones slumped over a bar stool crying into a mojito by themselves at the end of the night.
Those guys suck.
So in an effort to show that the advice I have been giving isn’t just magically pulled out of my metaphorical ass: Behold! An example of me literally practicing what I preach.
A nonfiction article of mine about the plights of shaving went live today on “The Good Men Project” – http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-good-life-shaving-face/
Despite it only being slightly over 1000 words, this piece was part of a pretty extensive revision cycle:
1. The first draft was finished on February 19, 2012. It was roughly 1500 words.
2. I trimmed it down to 1300 words, cleaned it up dramatically, and completed the second draft of February 27, 2012.
3. I submit this piece to a workshop of 10 of my Hopkins peers in the fabulous Cathy Alter‘s “Contemporary Nonfiction” class on April 10, 2012. It was about 1275 words at the time.
4. Based on that feedback, I revised, removed, changed, restructured, and added to the existing draft. Total word count, 1150.
5. Revised again, chopping out irrelevant sections, and revising some of the jokes to be more absurd, because hey, why not?
6. Finished one more round of changes, cleaned up the grammar and formatting, and submitted it to The Good Men Project on May 22, 2012.
7. Article was accepted and published on August 9, 2012. Final word count: 1041.
So there you have it. A single 1041 word article took about 4 whole months to draft, revise, pitch, and publish.
Good things come to those who wait. The good news is, you can work on tons of other things concurrently.
Get to writing (or revising)!
This is a picture of me writing this post. A little meta-POV for your Thursday.
Tagged: craft, humor, pitching, publishing, revision, writing, writing advice, writing process
Love the walk-through on your drafting and revision process. Anyone can put some words down on paper. This really illustrates how much work is involved to turn those words into something coherent and entertaining.
Congrats again on the acceptance!
Since I’m new at this whole game too, I just wanted to show everyone that I am in fact actually doing something, not just talking about doing something. It’s hard work, but the payoff is oh so sweet.
Thanks, as usual, for reading!
Great post. And I love the article you wrote. I see a lot of what I read in this blog in it, your “style” if you will. And I really love the comments from the guys who say “shave in the shower”. Apparently the humor was lost on them.
Thanks Ed!
I thought the same thing. I thought the tone was pretty obviously hyperbolic and sort of tongue-in-cheek, but I guess my style of humor isn’t for everyone 🙂
Very interesting insight here.
So what’s the deal with the article? Did you randomly write something and shop it potentially interested parties? Were you commissioned? Were you paid?
I’m curious about this whole ‘freelance article writer’ thing. I’ve got Cracked’s system down, but wonder how other sites work.
I just had the idea, wrote a draft, and ran with it. It helped that I got really positive feedback from my workshop group, but I probably would have tried to pitch it even only self-edited. I pitched it unsolicited.
The GMP doesn’t pay, but I do get exposure to their relatively large readership and publishing cred on their site, which will help me when pitching things in the future.
I pitched my piece to them because it had a lifestyle slant, and fit the tone of some of the other pieces I’d read on their site. As a freelancer, you have to be really on the pulse of any publication you hope to pitch to, so you know if your work is appropriate for their established audience.
My biggest challenge has been deciding when a piece is finally ready to pitch, and then actually writing the pitch letter and getting it out the door.
Loved the article, especially its battle tone. There is nothing worse than the ‘face rash’ you get after shaving, since it can last a full day in some cases.
I also manipulate the ‘contract’ with my wife (I just call it the ‘marriage contract’) by quoting random items and subsections to allow any of my suspect behaviours (not cleaning up properly, not making my own morning coffee, not doing my own ironing).
Thanks for reading!
Face rash is my bane. I’m an avid runner, and any time I run the day of (or day after) a shave, I feel like my face is going to burst into flame.
The Marriage Contract is infinitely malleable, but by both sides.
Glad I was able to meet you earlier today in the Daily Digest and found your blog this evening. I’ve always loved writing but never have taken time to explore it. Now I’m writing a lot since being here at WP…on a journey to get my life back and in turn help others to do the same. What I didn’t expect was how much I would enjoy the writing aspect of all this. I’m learning as I go. :). Looking forward to reading more on your blog when time allows. You have a gift of writing…keep going!
Another honest post I read today
This post rings true and soothes a bit my insecurities of being a “slow” writer. My mother still thinks my blog comes flying out stream-of-consciousness during my first cup of tea in the morning. If she only knew how many hand-picked leaves in India were actually needed to fuel a finished post…
Congrats on the publication!