Setting a Realistic Pace
Part 2 of The Corporate Creative Series
I mentioned previously that this second manuscript evolved from a series of articles and social media content. Between the two formats, I much preferred writing articles. I could set aside one afternoon and write a decent article that I would edit and publish the next day. I always followed this 2-day format to allow new ideas to trickle in once the main structure was in place. I also needed a break to refresh otherwise I wouldn’t spot my typical mistakes when proof-reading.
One article per month meant dedicating one weekend per month. Blogs don’t need much design effort once you’ve mastered website builders like SquareSpace.
Social media on the other hand is an insatiable beast that is best fed slowly. That one article would need to broken down into several posts that would be scheduled to go live over several days. The target was 3 posts per week: enough for Gen Zs who need to see brand visibility regularly and sustainable for me to balance with work.
Equal effort went into the graphic design of the post as the written content! The Gen Z visual palate is quite sophisticated. After a few months of trying to create the social media content myself, I conceded that I needed help. I hired Gen Z interns to work with me on all the stuff I wasn’t good at (the graphic design and day-to-day engagement strategies). We had a great mentorship symbiosis: they taught me social media and I helped them with anything they needed advice on.
I went from investment banking where social media is discouraged, to writing a book, to writing articles, to being on social media so that youngsters would discover my book and articles. This isn’t at all what I had planned but I was going with the flow!
Once I realised that my content needed to become a book, I hit pause on all the social media and focused on writing the book. Prior content gave me a base but I still had to ask fundamental questions:
What should the book be about?
Which articles and posts fit in with the story I want to tell?
From those that remain, what concepts should I eliminate or develop further?
What structure should I follow to elevate the learning experience of this book versus my first book?
I gave myself a target of 1 year to develop a manuscript. I finished on time but it was difficult. In the last 6 months, I basically committed all weekends and would set aside up to 4 hours on 2-3 evenings mid-week. I am lucky to be a night owl forged in the fires of investment banking but I am also an elder Millenial! I felt the pain of those hours!
My takeaways from this experience when it comes to setting a realistic pace are:
Work smart. Writing got easier over the 3.5 years because I would prepare content plans every 3 months. Knowing what was coming meant I was gradually mulling over ideas, writing notes and phrases to develop later and noticing articles or podcasts I could use as research. All this put me in a flow state by the time I sat down to write.
Build a team. I didn’t set out to be a social media person. I knew it was a powerful and necessary tool for me to engage with my audience but creating visual content wasn’t my happy place. Having interns to manage the social media re-balanced my focus, connected me to more young people and taught me new skills. Win-win-win!
Work on your project even when you don’t feel like it. I would review my calendar every Sunday to identify which nights I could afford to stay up late. However, making this commitment didn’t mean my creativity showed up according to schedule. I wouldn’t force the writing on nights when I was genuinely blocked. For someone like me writing on limited time, “writing anything even if it’s bad” was not appropriate advice. The time and clarity to self-edit good versus bad writing in a long manuscript is hard to come by. When blocked, I would rather proof read to ensure consistency of style, do some research or identify missing concepts. Writer’s block is frustrating and served to remind me that creative projects might be fulfilling but they aren’t always fun.
Work on your project when you’re in flow. As a night owl living in an early bird world, my balancing act is made difficult by getting into my flow state around 11pm but having meetings that start around 8am! In my flow state I can write content at a 75-90% quality level (according to my standard so interpret that as you will), leaving the balance to be refined through editing and feedback. I make the sacrifice to write when the words are forthcoming and deal with the early start through caffeine and calories. This has been my mindset during the manuscript season which is deadline driven but also highly dependent on quality.
How much time are you putting into your creative projects? Does it feel sustainable? Please share a comment below.
Also, share this article with a friend / colleague who’d be interested in this conversation.
