How I Wrote 424 Articles Last Year and You Can Do It Too

Photo by Dollar Gill on Unsplash

Before the lockdown, our little community started a writing club. We only had one meeting before we couldn’t meet anymore, but the subject of prompts came up. As a first exercise, they gave us a prompt to write on for our next meeting. I’m still waiting for that next meeting, but it’s what happened on the afternoon of the meeting that was interesting.

In emails and the forum, there was a flurry of activity.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“I can’t even get started.”

“How do you write about that?”

“I’m finished. What’s next?”

That last one was mine. I’ve always liked writers’ prompts for fiction, and I use a similar device for my non-fiction. What my fiction writing has taught me is that, even though I have no idea what I’m going to write, if I get the first sentence down, that’s all I need. Sometimes the first word. For the story below, the only prompt was the title. I didn’t even know what jack-in-the-pulpit was, so my immediate reaction was, “Jack-in-the-Pulpit? What the hell’s that?” And as you will find out if you read the story (I hope you will), that became the opening line. I finished the first draft about 30 minutes later.

Because that’s how I write.

I rarely do much research before I start an article. Depending on the subject, I may do a quick web search and make some notes during the idea phase. But once I’m ready to write, once I open up that blank document and get in the zone, I rarely stop for research. Partly because I try to write about things I know. Partly because I don’t know where the piece is going yet.

Partly because I’m lazy.

Periodically, I may pause in the middle of the article and research a fact if I stumble over it. If it takes me out of the zone long enough to wonder about it. More often, I put in a note to do it later. Because once I start typing, I don’t like to stop until I finish the article. With non-fiction, that isn’t such a big deal, but with fiction, it can be a deal-breaker for me.

I remember another story. I can’t post a link here because I never finished it. It was about a weatherman. Edge of your seat, right? This guy wasn’t a meteorologist, he was a weatherman. The guy they used to hire to point at a green screen and read the teleprompter. Anyway, it was a humor piece and I was going like gangbusters. Halfway through, I had to stop for some reason.

It’s still sitting there, half-finished. I’ve tried to finish it several times, but I just can’t. I don’t know where it’s going. I lost the thread.

Because that’s how I write.

One line at a time. From start to finish, typos and all. And in fiction, I don’t know where the story is going until it gets there. If you are reading one of my stories, (and I hope you will), and a sudden turn of events surprises you, I was just as astonished. I’ll be typing merrily along when suddenly, out of nowhere, some new twist pops into my head and the story changes direction.

With non-fiction, I usually have an idea, but sometimes, it shifts partway through. You won’t see this, because when this happens in non-fiction, the old article becomes a new article. Or two.

This tale grew in the telling, until it became a history of the Great War of the Ring… ~J.R.R. Tolkien

The article below is a great example. It started in a completely different direction. I knew what I wanted to write about when I started it. But I didn’t write about that, I wrote about this. I still need to write that other article. Once the article took a turn, I had to follow it to its new ending.

Because that’s how I write.

The only problem with that is it frequently makes the introduction moot. And even though I re-read every article several times, the first time will be to make sure it is cohesive and the first paragraph doesn’t introduce something I didn’t write about later. (Wow, I hope I didn’t do that here). Sometimes I finish the first draft, and after rereading it, chop it up into two articles, the one I started to write and the one I ended up writing.

The other thing I have done with my recent writing, is I always write the title last. I come up with a working title that goes at the top of my draft. But I usually create the final title after the article is ready to publish. Because what I ended up with may have nothing to do with what I started with. Sometimes the working title becomes the sub-title. Sometimes, I scrap the whole thing and come up with a new title and sub-title.

When I do create the title first, it’s usually a mistake. This article is a perfect example. I was thinking about how I write, so I wrote that down as the title of an article, How I Write. Fortunately, my editor came to my rescue and asked if I could change the title. Not only was it vague, but in trying to come up with a new title, I Googled the old one. One in 22 million may sound good, but in SEO terms, it’s really not.

So for me, it’s best to have the idea behind the article in the back of my head when I open up the blank page. Not so much a destination, but a general direction. If I come to a fork in the path, I may take either way. Or I may mark that other path to come back to it later. Then that new trail becomes a whole new article. Or three. Because each new branch in the trail may have its own branches. It usually does.

Using this method has netted me over 400 articles in the past year. To some of you, this seems like a lot. Others of you are thinking, “hold my beer.” But to put it in perspective, in the last ten years, I have written about 2,000 articles. Do the math. 25% of my writing done in 10% of the time. Some of this is because I take occasional breaks from writing to focus on my photography. But mostly, it’s because of this shift in my approach. Instead of a linear path, I let my mind wander in non-fiction the same way it does in my fiction writing.

So, think about this the next time you are writing an article. When that stray thought pops into your head, don’t discard it as a distraction, follow it. Or at least make a note of it, so you can come back later. You may surprise yourself. At the very least, your article idea will sprout two or three new ones.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go start the article I thought of while writing this one.

Because that’s how I write.

You do you.

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