How I Write Blogs

I wanted to write up a quick blog about how I go about writing other blog and such. I think its interesting how my mind jumps around from subject to subject, which is exactly how I write blogs. New ideas pop into my head and I quickly save whatever I'm currently working on, start up a new blog, and come up with a quick outline for what I want to discuss, just to make sure I remember why I started the blog post in the first place. There have been quite a few posts that I create just the title of and start out with a line like: "So, occasionally, I'll _____" (with the blank line in there), and the title of the blog will be something out of left field like: "When my Dreams Meet Reality". The first thing that pops into my head when looking it over again is "where in the world was I going to go with that?" So, I wanted to share with you guys my process of producing blogs, so that maybe it will spark your own set of procedures to go through for starting and maintaining your own blog.



My first suggestion is to immediately write down your new blog post idea somewhere. It doesn't matter where its located, but somewhere safe is always a plus. If I am on my computer working on some blog and a new idea pops into my head, I'll quickly save my first blog, swap to a new template and jot some information down. However, if I cannot easily access my Blogger account so easily, I use a nifty note feature on my iPhone that I can access from any application, that way I have the access I need when inspiration strikes. I always use the same place to record all my ideas, despite there being several applications that would be better suited for the purpose of note taking. This allows me to do 2 things. The first is that it provides a common area for all my ideas, so that when I am recording new ones, or reviewing old ones, I'm in the mindset of a blogger and can approach the ideas that way, rather than having to scroll through my school assignments for the little note I made on the margin of some piece of paper I got back from the professor. The second benefit kind of goes hand in hand with the first, which is that I can always look in just 1 area to see all my blog ideas, rather than having to hunt in multiple different locations, where I could potentially lose an idea.

The next thing that I like to do is a bit more personal, in that its just how my mind operates, which is to work with my task in layers. This is the procedure I use for many things, such as programming (where it works wonderfully), essay writing (its also amazing here), fiction writing (getting into a bit of a stretch, but its possible) and blogging (okay, we're out in left field again). For me, blogging is usually a 2-3 pass process, as appose to the other listed tasks which may require 5-6 passes until they are complete. The full method is pretty cool, but I'll be sticking strictly to the 3 pass method that I use for blogs. The first pass is usually just a simple outline. The goal is to get the idea from my head onto paper (or into a digital database) in such a way that I have a rough idea where the blog will go, and so that I can remember what I wanted to do with it later. The later is really important, as you'll see later on. Getting the idea down usually lands me in a format like:

How I Write Blogs
- where/how (tools) - this one obviously didn't make it to this blog
- storage of ideas
- outline in layers
- jumping around
- multi-day tasks

 This gives me a set of ideas to which I can add, delete or change as desired at the time of writing. Then, pass 2 usually expands the ideas out further to allow me lots of content on which to write. This step is the one that I'll skip every once in a while, especially if I am planning on cranking out the blog post in a single sitting or day, which usually doesn't happen. This blog itself, despite being simplistic and relatively short, has taken me a week or so of editing here and there, bit by bit. And this leads me into my last phase, which is content. I'll flesh out content line by line or word by word. Its very rare that I fully flesh out the first 2-3 items in my outline. I'll usually skip around, filling in whatever I feel like at the time, and ignoring the areas I'd rather not be bothered with at that time. It works pretty well to keep me from getting bored or to start to feel like I'm being forced to crank out a blog. I really want this process to be as fun and exciting as possible, and the easiest way I've found is to only gently nudge myself to complete sections I usually skip over, or I wait until the mood strikes and I feel like being a super blogger and completely 2-3 blogs in a single sitting. But, for the most part, I'll open up my dashboard and look through all the drafts I have until something strikes me.

And this sort of transitions into my next topic, which is the fact that I do jump around, a lot. There have been times when I'll be working on some blog and I'll be typing the line: "So, afterwards, I just started sneezing my" and I'll pause mid-sentence, save the draft, create a new blog and setup an outline for the blog "That Snot How You Do It!" (it doesn't actually exist, in case you were wondering). After drafting out the outline, I'll either go back to my interrupted blog or I'll just start hacking away at the new one. This really just depends on how I feel and what I want to do. The upside, as I mentioned before, is that I rarely get bored or feel forced to complete a blog, although I have had to do that on a few occasions. The downside is that I can potentially lose track of what I'm blogging about, as well as greatly increasing the amount of time it takes for me to get a blog out.

And now we've come to our last topic of the outline, which is the fact that I usually spend several days of working on a blog after the idea has been recorded. Sometimes, if the blog sits empty for an extended period of time, I'll end up deleting it, while other times, I'll get into my super blogger mood and crank it out, or at least until a new idea strikes, then everything is up in the air again.

There are very few exceptions, but most of my blogs are done within a week. However, as I am currently working with 5-7 different drafts, things seem to slow down a little, and less important blogs, such as this one, get delayed by several days (or a full week in this case). One thing that might help with the length of time it takes for me to crank out a blog would be to set aside some amount of time during which the only thing I am allowed to do would be blog. If I could dedicate, say, 2 hours in the morning to nothing but blogging, after which I am free to continue blogging while doing other tasks, then I think I'd get a bit better at churning out blogs promptly. As it stands, when I'm not in the super blogger mode, I'll log in, take a look at the blogs I'm working on, then kind of shrug it off. This not only leaves gaps in my posting, but it has also caused me to end up removing some topics that I would have otherwise enjoyed blogging about. In fact, there are several issues that I really need to get out, as there is a lot to talk about, but still, I take my time with them, piecing them together bit by bit.

So, everything kind of has its advantages and disadvantages. The only thing I would like to change about my methods would be how frequently I swap between blogs. If I could concentrate 50% of my time on a single blog and spend the other 50% on a mix of others, that would be much more effective than spending only 20% on each blog. Perhaps I'll develop better methods as I continue blogging. My goal is to be able to put out a blog a day, which is not quite happening. I'll have to see what I can change to keep as many of the advantages of my methods as possible, but still be able to meet my goals.