How to Fail at Writing One Blog Post a Day
On average, it takes me four hours to write, edit, and post a new blog. The end time is extended if I have to find an image to accompany the post. And, no matter how hard I try, I’m always fighting with WordPress to correct formatting issues (shakes fist!). Knowing this, when I sat down to write last night’s post at 9:38pm, did I really expect to meet my posting deadline of 11:59pm Wednesday?
Actually, I did.
That post was supposed to be a quick paragraph or bullet point rebuttal about Mike Elgan’s article but turned in to one of the most epic blogs I’ve ever written on here. It went in a direction that I wasn’t expecting it to go—which I love with all my creative heart, but not when I’m on a deadline—and since I write about a topic I know a lot about, I had a lot to say.
Don’t you love it when you underestimate yourself?
Here’s what needs to change if I am going to meet my NaBloPoMo goal:
Limit epic blog posts to 2 per week. The problem with epic blog posts is you don’t know they’re going to be epic until you finish writing them. I need to simplify my mind and just hit publish. If it’s taking me forever to write, I need to break it up into two posts. Whatever. Say what I need to say, edit, format, publish, done.
Start writing before 10pm at night. I have a calendar of ideas swimming around on paper and inside my head, but I have not outlined every post or written them in advance.
My NaBloPoMo buddy asked if it’s considered cheating if you write a post in advance. I looked at him and said, very seriously, “Yes, of course it is,” before turning my head and smiling. I may have a content calendar, but maybe there could be something to his strategy.
This blog project is what I do in my “spare” time, which means it comes after “work.” If I want to spend quality time with my husband at night, some things need to change.
Tags: Mike Elgan, NaBloPoMo, strategy, writing process
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 6:32 pm and is filed under on writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
