The Power of the Unfinished Project
Your key to writing productivity
If there’s one common piece of advice for making it on Medium, it is to write and publish more. While full time writers advise publishing twenty or more articles a month, that kind of production is a tall order for those of us with one foot still in the day job world.
It isn’t for a lack of things to write about, either. If you are on this platform you likely have a deep desire to write and have no challenges finding subject matter. All of us have writing ideas that fall under different categories of writing difficulty or laboriousness.
Research intensive articles are among these. Not only does finding source material take time, it must also be read and parsed for takeaways that support your article’s theme. Then it needs to be cited as a source using an accepted citation format.
The part time writer has to write according to the ebbs and flows of available time, personal and family responsibility and mental energy. For all the hype we see on this platform, I don’t believe in fighting your body’s messages about fatigue. Does anyone believe forced writing is quality writing? I don’t.
Write it Down Now
One of my more fruitful writing habits is to write down an article idea as soon as it occurs. Sometimes your best ideas will come to you at inopportune times while in the bathroom, car or out for a walk. If I’m not at my workstation, I can jot down the basic idea on my cell phone with either a note taking app or the Medium app.
Have you ever written a blog post title only to go back and have no clue what your idea was about? Write down enough so that the basic argument or theme is not lost.
I try to come up with a title and some key bullet points or arguments that I will pursue. Enough that I can get mentally back in the groove of the idea when I return to it. Writing down enough of the idea when it comes to you and saving it for later is a key to what I call The Power of The Unfinished Project. Medium’s drafts tab lends itself very well to this.
Some of those ideas are going to be labor and research intensive and take a long time. Articles on history, science and philosophy will demand time investments up front. But humor, sports, politics, personal essays or current events articles are largely about opinion or lived experience that can be written off the cuff.
All you need is the idea or title and enough of an outline to help you remember your key points later. By writing enough down to jog your memory, you’ll surprise yourself later by how little time is needed to hammer out your article.
But what if you come home from work drained and have no creative energy? There are other non-writing things you can do while at your workstation to further your project along.
Finding Photos
Finding the right photo can be time consuming especially if you are surfing multiple stock photo sites for the perfect visual complement. Returning to an unfinished project with well considered photos will make you see your article as closer to completion.
Finding Source Links
Finding source links that bolster your article and saving them for later is another essential non-writing task. You can do this without exerting the same mental energy as writing. If you’re too tired to read and absorb now, save them in your favorites for later. Once you’re certain you want to use a piece of external source material, enter it in your sources section at the end of your article using the publication’s accepted citation format.
Choosing Past Articles to Promote
Posting links of your previous articles at the end of a blog post is a great way to establish subject matter authority and promote your back catalog.
Yes, Mediumites, you have crossed the rubicon from consumer to producer. You are a content provider with a back catalog to promote and monetize. Select articles of similar subject matter and post the story links by using the “embed” command <>. Consult your publication’s submission guidelines for posting links to your previous work.
Lead Sentences For Paragraphs
Laying out a lead sentence for each paragraph highlighting your argument or theme is another less laborious way to bring your post closer to completion while honoring your need for less exertion. Coming back when you have a full tank of gas will make your writing and publishing feel lighter. You can organize your main points in chronological order when you’re refreshed and rested.
As a part time writer, you have limited time and energy. Performing the non-writing parts of your article can lessen fatigue while keeping you productively moving toward publication.
You can produce more by publishing those articles first that require less research. There is something magic about going to your drafts tab and seeing a list of several outlines for prospective articles. Your motivation will surge seeing a draft box filled with unfinished articles having well chosen photos and source material.
Yes, writing is work but it doesn’t always have to feel like work. Having a portfolio of unfinished projects adds motivation and reduces pressure from believing that you have to be writing to be productive.