Twenty-five blogs! Yay! I'm 2.5% of the way to my goal of 1,000 blogs. So far, this has been a hoot—I'm writing more regularly, and with less judgement, than I have in years, and it is allowing me to connect with my ideas and my creativity in a way I've missed. But I think it's time to let y'all in on a little secret.
I don't publish these blogs as soon as I write them. Even worse, sometimes, they don't get published for weeks.
Shocking, right?
Okay, that's not a shock to anyone who has created content before. But it is a fun fact, and if either of my readers are thinking about starting their own blog or creating regular content, I thought I'd share that little bit of information and offer a peek into my writing process. Also, if you know me well enough to know my schedule, sometimes the blogs can seem a little funny, like when I'm writing about being in meetings when you know full well I'm on vacation at the beach, or whatever.
I do most of my writing between 7 and 7:30 in the morning. I come downstairs to my home office, log into my computer and immediately go to my blog site, where I do one last edit on the blog that is being published that day, share it on social media, and then write a new blog, immediately. I don't check email, I don't go on the socials, nothing. My first meeting most days is at 7:45, so I have a very tight timeframe to get something written, and that deadline ensures that I don't wander off down a rabbit hole or anything. (This blog was written in the afternoon, so it is going to be WAY too long.)
As soon as my new blog is written, I do all the SEO stuff a blog requires, pick a photo to go on it and schedule the day and time that it is going to post. I try to stay two weeks ahead on my writing, just in case I miss a day or go on a vacation or something. (This blog was written on July 28th and is scheduled for August 5th, so I have some catching up to do.)
Some days, like today, I write several blogs. (This is my third one and I'm percolating an idea for another one, too.) I might have more time, I might be feeling inspired, or, like today, I might be trying to load up some content to make up for being gone for a week. The fun part is that I don't look at my scheduled blogs again until the day they publish, so they are often a surprise to me when I sit down for the final edit. When you write a lot, and quickly, you often forget what you've written and it's a pleasure (or sometimes, a shock) to read it a couple of weeks later.
So, there you have it. My process. Write a lot, put it in the bank, and never have to worry about what I'm posting on any given day.