I was psyched a month ago when I got assigned a lengthy feature article for an arts magazine I love. But with a week until my deadline, excitement is giving way to panic. I have all my interviews done, and I’ve collected a ton of really interesting material. It’s weaving it all together into a cohesive article that is proving harder than expected. Chronological order is boring, but if I get too creative with the transitions and tangents it will impossible to follow.
See, most of my assignments are 500-1,000 words. Piece of cake. I can write those suckers in a few days (but I always wait before submitting in case some brilliant turn of phrase pops into my head, or more likely, I realize I’ve misspelled something). This assignment is for 1,500-2,500 words – my longest yet (college papers don’t count because those were all about padding and margin adjustments). The editor left it pretty open-ended, so if it’s 1,500 words, I get $X. If it’s 2,500 words, I get $X +Y. Naturally, I want $X +Y (minus the algebraic equation, of course). Not just because it would nice to pad my checking account with extra $Y, but because my subject deserves the full 2,500 words.
Therein lies the rub. I’m writing about a topic that I care about so deeply that it’s almost paralyzing. I want the article to fully capture the creative genius of my subjects, but it’s sapping my own creative genius (er, you know what I mean). I've rewritten the first 1,100 words several times because I keep worrying that it doesn't do them justice. I have this theory (and others have confirmed its validity) that some writers are sprinters and others are marathoners. Sprinters go for the quick gratification like writing front-of-book pieces and short profiles, and marathoners write novels and 10,000 word articles on the cover of New York Times Magazine. So, this week I need to decide… which one am I?