Robert Birming has been keeping track of posts sharing about people’s blogging workflow. I’m a bit late to the game and the list but thought I’d share anyways. I’ve really enjoyed picking up writing for myself again and it’s helpful to think through the how of it.
Basically, a post starts its life in one of 3 ways:
1. Digging through the archives.
I’ve blogged off and on over the past couple of decades. On a number of occasions I’ve completely rebooted it from scratch because people grow and change and interests evolve. But I do like going back through my personal archives and occasionally pulling something out to post. I’ve not done that yet for this latest iteration but I do have some in the works. To do it I:
- Find an old post in my note archives.
- Read and edit based on who I am now.
- Once I’m happy with edits, load up scribbles and post!
2. Immediate inspiration (and review posts)
Some posts I do on the spot because they are either easier review type posts (think: my Sunday Review posts) or I have some sort of immediate inspiration. For these it’s as simple as:
- Opening Scribbles.
- Clicking on ”+ Write”
- Writing it out and scheduling it to post.
3. Draft and Post
Most of my posts these days start as drafts in scribbles and go through a number of iterations. To do this I:
- Whenever inspiration strikes regarding a topic I open the draft section of Scribbles
- Click on ”+ Start New Draft”
- Put the topic in the subject line or in the body (depending on length and what I want to add then and there).
- In the evenings after the family goes to bed I’ll take an hour or so to write. I’ll look through prospective drafts and either pick one to focus on or do number 2 above and let Immediate Inspiration take over.
- When a draft is ready, I’ll then schedule it to post and remove the “Save as Draft” flag.