I had a story out in Wired this week. Not the most exciting story, but a belabored one.
It was on Since Sliced Bread, a web contest where people submitted ideas that they thought were the best thing since sliced bread and the winner got $100,000.
Because it was a contest the story was embargoed until after the organizers of the contest announced the winner. So I had the story finished, then I had to re-write it when they decided on a winner, finished the story again and had to sit on it for almost a week before Wired was able to put it up.
Still I got to talk to Carl Pope of the Sierra Club and David Sifry from technorati, both were exceptionally nice. Funny, I recently gave a book by Carl Pope, strategic ignorance, to a friend down the street.
Major lesson learned: If your story is on a contest don’t write a draft before the judges pick a winner. The news gathering factor is who won and that’s going to need to go to the top. All drafts you write will end up as note gatherings — so save yourself the trouble and just organize your notes.