Build a Blog

I know when I started to blog I had little to no experience with writing. And I hoped that over time my writing would improve, as I gained experience and practice at writing to my blog. Well looking back to when I started I can see that has happened with my writing. I see it as an ongoing process or journey and I am always looking for new ways to help me move forward. Recently I have added 3 new methods to my writing to help improve it from a planning point of view. Here they are:

1. Setting a process for writing posts

I start with a good old pen and a piece of paper, which can seem a little strange as I work on a computer. But I find it’s easier to get the ideas down and move them around to plan the outline of the post on paper, rather than looking at an empty screen and trying to write from scratch. And I always have a pad and pen handy for writing down post ideas.

Then using these notes I write a rough copy straight into Wordpress to see how the ideas work together.

After I have done that I save it and leave it for a while, anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days. When I go back to it I have fresh eyes and that enables me to make the final amendments to the article in a fresh way. Instead of writing it all at once and publishing straight away, which can end up too rushed. This way I feel the finished product is better because I pick up on quite a few things I didn’t like, like mistakes or things that I have missed that will make the article better.

2. Planning a diary of posts ahead of time

I know while I have been blogging I can find difficultly sometimes knowing what to write about or what to write about first. I try to have some balance to it by deciding how many times a week to post and to have some sort of flow to the posts rather than being completely random. So I have started to plan ahead a diary of posts so I have focus and flow to the posts. Writing with a focus and also writing a group of posts together sparks more ideas, and lets me see the whole picture better before I start posting.

3. Setting weekly features to focus my writing

Creating weekly features also helps with the above points. It’s easy to end up staring at a blank piece of paper or screen sometimes. So having a weekly feature (or a couple) can help relieve the stress of ‘what am I going to be writing next’. Some months everything can flow nicely, and other times it can be harder.

If I have a topic that I want to talk a lot about then making it a weekly feature is sensible, so the information can be spread out and not become overwhelming. This has especially worked well on the case study blog.

But my main problem at the moment comes from the case study blog, there is so much information I could write about. I want to explain the process well, so deciding in what order I should write about things can be difficult. And I do have other things to say besides talking about the case study! So that’s where the features come in.

Conclusion

Working out a process for my writing from idea generation to posting it on the blog has been incredibly helpful to me. I want the posts to flow on the blog and not just come out of nowhere, and I can only do that If I plan.

Everyone will do this process differently and finding the best way for me has taken some time. But I’ve now found a better way of working, rather than just sitting down each day with Wordpress and writing off the cuff and publishing it straight away.

How do you write?

Mandy

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