Writing in Mass
by Sean Platt on March 11, 2009
in blogging
We’ve all been there – we’re supposed to drop a post for the coming day, but the idea of sitting down and writing is about as appealing as chasing 200 sit-ups with a Brussel sprout smoothie. The feeling of looming drudgery is not something we ever want to face with our blogs. The moment our blogs begin to feel like a chore is the precise moment our human nature will render waning enthusiasm to resentment. Our jaundiced fervor will show in our voice, displayed for all our readers to see. One surefire way to guard yourself against this feeling is to have a bank of posts ready for publishing at any time.
How do you brim a bank with posts when getting one out at a time is such a chore already? Easy. Stop writing one at a time.
The more you can streamline production, the more efficiently your blog will run overall. The more efficiently your blog is running, the more fun you will have, and the more opportunities you will be able to see. As my daily writing duties expanded from one piece of writing to twenty, I knew I would flounder without a system; every day a struggle spent hoping I could soon catch up.
The most effective method I’ve found to fill my bank is to write my posts in batches. Think about it: your brain is an efficient machine, but it will only work as orderly as you demand. Sitting down to write a post each day is not an effective strategy. Compare the act of muscling through one post per day to sitting in the same spot and spitting out a week’s worth of content and then scheduling it all to drop the following week.
Once you’re writing your articles in batches, you can then start to streamline the process even further. Let’s say there are 3 components to penning a post: research; write; refine. Each time you switch from one task to the next, you are asking your brain to slow down, shift gears, and change direction. Decide on the number of posts you want to write and then complete each step in full.
RESEARCH: If you gather a lot of your ideas from reading other blogs, then spend some time online reading and making notes. If you draw your inspiration from the well of the world passing before your eyes, that’s fine too. Just make sure that you have a few notes, lines, sketches, or anything that will help you to get started. It is infinitely easier to pull an inferno from a spark than it is fan a flame from nothing. Once your research is in place, you can move on to the writing.
WRITE: This is the hardest part for most, yet it doesn’t have to be. Don’t slow to think. Be confident in your pending edit and write your words with abandon. Know you will thicken the good and trim the bad. Allow your mind to wander and release. Finish one post and then bounce from one subject to the next. You’re in writing mode now; your synapses should be spinning, creativity crackling, and writing rolling along with a lot more ease. Let it spill, then bring your mop to the edit.
REFINE: Once you have a few drafts finished, it’s time to take it from the top. The dish will have cooled and flavors settled. Now you should be able to truly taste what you might not have in the immediate aftermath of your first draftg. Sharpen your voice, augment your arguments, and eliminate any unnecessary tangents. Add a bit color to your black and white by adding a picture if you so desire, then schedule your posts for publishing.
Writing a week’s worth of content in one fell swoop isn’t necessarily easy, but it is effective, and if you want to pull all you can from blogging, it is absolutely worth the effort.
Sean
Sean Platt is a dad and freelance writer. Subscribe to his feed or follow him on Twitter.
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I’m not so much of a writer in mass, but a photographer in mass. Because my blog is more of a photo journey, I travel in and around the LA area taking pictures. I already know I’ll do at least one post on the area I visited, but once I look at the pictures, other ideas strike me.
For example, yesterday, I posted about riding a bike trail along the Los Angeles River, however, while I was riding the trail, diligently taking photos, I turned around and saw a completely different view, hence today’s post.
It’s amazing how ideas for a post will just present themselves, and seeing more than one post from one idea is a great way to “write in mass.”
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Great post, Sean. Timely for many. I’ve been away from Blogopolis Blueprint for a few days due to illness, my own and my family’s, so I’m completely with you on the multiple post writing. I have an article coming out tomorrow, but it’s been with the editor for a month now. Just as well, or she wouldn’t have got one from me these last few days!If I ever felt there was any pressure on me to write – self imposed or otherwise – I would stop. That’s why I admire your DETERMINATION to become a freelance, full-time writer. It takes guts and a lot of hard work as well as enough presence to capture the inspiration when it lands. If you don’t live enough and love enough and leave yourself enough time to moodle and read and think, what’s left to write about?
Lisa: That’s a fantastic parallel and exactly how I write. As I’m writing I’ll often think of a different photograph or angle that can carry the same ideas off in a different direction. Hence, another post for another day. We’re neighbors by the way, I’m just a bit south of you in Long Beach.
Janice: Nice to see you back, Janice. I hope all is well. I am determined yes, but don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to be a freelance writer forever. I want to do it exactly long enough to climb to the next step on the pyramid. I love writing, but I truly long to write things for me. With a full freelancing plate that gets twisted into empty desire. Writer Dad is the closest thing I have to non professional related writing right now and even it carries a modicum of business. Someday son though, someday soon.
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Great advice Sean! I do usually feel after writing a post that I want to write more, so why am I stopping myself?
Putting a system in place for everything you possibly can is the road to success. Thanks for putting your procedure in place for us to follow.
I’ve got half a dozen or so posts sitting in my blog’s vault but in a rough draft from. I’m now going to dedicate some time to polishing them up and set up the auto-post cannon.
In fact I think I will make it a regular, once a week thing.
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Marc: You know what I did at the end of February that really helped me out? I wrote out posts for two weeks for everything that was due with the exception of WD. It gave me a tremendous amount of free time the following week. Unfortunately, my kids took turns being sick and I didn’t pull ahead like I would have wanted to, but at least I was far enough ahead to take care of them.
Writer Dad’s last blog post..Have a Nice Day! or Smell You Later.
Which just highlights the importance of having a system in place.
Imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t written those posts and then your kids got sick.
Oh this is so true! I’m doing to weeks in advance today! There are times when it takes me 2 hours to write one and when I do them in batches I breeze through. Of course I have to be in the flow or it doesn’t work.
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I think for many bloggers, myself included, merely writing every day would be a good step in the right direction.
Also, it’s sometimes helpful, though not everyone has this luxury, but it’s sometimes helpful to write a post and to keep coming back to it. I find you can sometimes sharpen a post the most when it’s something you take a look at over a few days or even just two.
I’m going to try this. Thank you for giving me a new insight.
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Marc: Dude, it’s happened and it’s terrible. Now with as much on my plate as I have, I need to make sure that I’m running about a week ahead. That way even if the worst happens, I need to catch up, not keep from drowning.
Tess: Absolutely. Being in the flow makes all the difference in the world. I can struggle for two hours on a single post, or burn through half a dozen. It totally depends on my internal rhythm, though I am getting better at recognizing what that is.
Bamboo Forest: Blogging has made me a far better writer if for no other reason than it has me sitting behind the keyboard every day. Reading and writing together are the two primary ingredients in pushing someone toward their best writing. If you’re doing your best job blogging, you should be doing one or the other almost always.
Randi: My pleasure, Randi. Snicker…. “THEY ARE COLLEGE!” Too cool. I know I’m mixing posts here, but it’s all the same author, right?
Writer Dad’s last blog post..Have a Nice Day! or Smell You Later.
@Bamboo Very true. But as your skills develop you’ll find yourself putting out the quality content far sooner and you’ll find yourself not having to edit as much. Also be careful you don’t over-edit to the point where you don’t post the thing at all. I’ve done that a few times.
@Randi You should patent that phrase, Sean is about to plaster it all over the Internet
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You mean the phrase “They ARE college (TM)?” There we go, whew! I’m safe now. I wonder what would have happened if Sean would have told that suck monster guidance counselor, “College? Excuse me, ma’am. I AM college.”
Randi’s last blog post..The Results are In!
@ March:
“But as your skills develop you’ll find yourself putting out the quality content far sooner”
I agree.
I AM COLLEGE!!!!!!!!
YOU ARE LEGEND!!!!!!
Randi’s last blog post..The Results are In!
This is a really good post. Writing blog posts in batches makes it easier to get ahead.
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Thanks for the tips regarding blogging, it was very helpful.