Next month, my daughter will run a marathon to celebrate a milestone birthday. I marvel at her training routine: 10-mile runs, half-marathons, intervals, cross-training. I can't wait to cheer her on in Aspen.

Although my running days are over, I've recently completed a marathon of sorts. I've just spent six months revising 26 chapters for my forthcoming book, Business Matters: An Independent Freelancer's Guide to Business Survival. Today I sent the final section to the publisher.

When I began the project, I was exhilarated by the route ahead. I had wanted to publish a book for years. At the starting line, I had a few jitters, but I soon hit my stride and even experienced the nirvana of "flow," becoming so fully absorbed in my writing that I was oblivious to my surroundings. At one point while I slaved away in my office, the dog barked and I wondered, "I have a dog???"

However, after a few miles (er, chapters), I began to doubt whether I could ever finish this book. I longed for the whole thing to be over. I just couldn't seem to catch my breath; as soon as I finished one chapter, the rest of them loomed ahead, up a long, long hill. I thought about quitting.

And then stubbornness kicked in. Even if I ended up crawling on my hands and knees, I would finish this book. No longer worried about making every line perfect, I did the best I could and struggled on to the finish line. Persistence overcame perfectionism.

Tips for completing your ambitious writing projects

Click here to see survival tips for writing long projects.

Last September, I had an eerie experience after posting a comment on an STC (Society for Technical Communication) blog: My comment appeared with Marcia Riefer Johnston's name on it (Who is SHE?
,I wondered). We finally straightened it out, which started a random, lovely, productive relationship with a fellow STC member and now, a fellow author.

"Two years ago--TWO YEARS AGO--I set out to bundle up my blog posts and call the compilation good. I planned to put out a little book that I could sell online and stuff into Christmas stockings. Fortunately, my husband had the courage to say:"Honey, why don't you rethink your goals? You have more in you than that. What you have right now won't hit anything out of the park." It took me a few days to let his words in. Boy, am I glad I did. Whether the resulting effort blasts anything over any walls remains to be seen, but I'm content in knowing that I've given it my best swing."

Not me, I thought. My columns are already in PDFs; I'll just throw on a front and back cover.    

Click here to see how I actually dealt with this project.  

I was quite surprised by your responses to my completely unscientific poll that asked how you would describe yourself. So many of you self-identified as introverts. I guess we're in good company!  

Extrovert 10.3%

Introvert 75.8%

Other 13.7% ("mostly extroverted, but getting more introverted"; "both"; "half and half"; "hermit")

View individual comments offered on the poll.