Four Years, 23 Drafts, One Article

Writing "Waugh We Fight" didn’t happen in a single, steady push. Some writers draft an outline, build their argument in neat, sequential paragraphs, and complete a polished piece in a matter of days.

That’s rarely my approach.

The opening GIF tells the story. Instead of a methodical outline-to-draft-to-publication process, this article came together in bursts across nearly four years. The 23 snapshots show bulleted lists, scattered paragraphs, stray quotes, links, and even images—evidence of my meandering, non-linear process.

My Meandering Process

From the moment I created a Google Doc in November 2019 to publication in November 2023, I struggled to find the right angle. I knew Men at Arms was my favorite book, but articulating why took time. Early drafts tied Evelyn Waugh’s novel to the Army’s pivot toward large-scale combat operations. In the final version, I instead focused on specific vignettes that resonated with my military experience.

This drawn-out process isn’t unusual for me. I tend to work on articles in fits and starts—sometimes over weeks, sometimes over years. The graph below shows just how uneven the writing process was: long stretches of inactivity punctuated by sudden bursts of effort.

Five Phases of My Writing Process

1. Start a Google Doc. When an idea strikes, I jot it down—often on my phone. Many ideas never make it past this point. This one did, barely.

2. Revisit when the mood strikes. Ideas percolate while I’m lifting weights, biking, or running. I added notes sporadically over seven weeks (in red on the graph), then abandoned the piece for two and a half years.

3. Turn it into an article. Eventually, something pushes me to shape the scattered thoughts into a draft. I took stabs at this in both 2022 and 2023 (in blue on the graph). The final push came in a single-day sprint on July 17, 2023, which accounted for nearly a third of all edits (green on the graph).

4. Pitch an editor. Writing with an outlet in mind helps, but at some point, you have to send the pitch. War on the Rocks accepted mine in September 2022—but I missed the deadline for a Veterans Day release and shelved the piece for another seven months. Outlets might reject your pitch, or reject the article draft when you send it in. These things happen.

5. Iterate and publish. Once an editor bites, expect a back-and-forth. When I finally picked up the piece again in mid-2023, I rewrote it with fresh perspective, sent it in, and worked through edits until publication (purple on the graph).

The Takeaway

If your writing process feels messy, inconsistent, or unstructured—that’s normal. Some ideas need time to ripen.