Under The Hood Of My Writing Process
Last week I wrote a post about why I persist with blogging even though I’m a sub par writer. I was fortunate enough to have a few wonderful comments, one in particular probed into what my writing process actually was. As a result I’ve written this post to explore what actually happens before I hit the publish button. Thanks for the inspiration Sam.
So how do I write?
The truth is I don’t really know, this is the first time I’ve stopped to think about my process. I probably should have written this sort of self reflective post a long time ago because just thinking about how I go about writing posts has already taught me a lot about myself. So where do I start, well I guess it all starts with an idea…
Finding The Idea
I try to make sure that iThnk.com has at two posts per week so what this means is that I’m thinking about blogging ideas all week. As a result what usually happens is that ideas hit me at multiple stages throughout the week.
Ideas are usually sparked into life by a comment, an inspiring blog post that I come across, a piece of news and sometimes it’s just something we’re doing with our business.
Depending on where I am and what I’m doing I’ll either fire up my web browser or open the wordpress app on my iPhone and type in a post title before the idea disappears. I then set aside some time to come back fill out the body of the post (I have loads tittles just waiting for me to come back and finish them off).
A Title For You & A Title For Me
When I first type in that post title I usually word it for myself. I do this as reminder of the essence behind the idea that I’m going to come back and flesh out. Then once I’m finished with the post I review the title and reword it for you guys. There’s a whole load of advice out there about writing catchy tittles, but I tend to just go with whatever feels good.
I Try To Make The Body Text Easy To Follow
In the body of the post I try to breakdown the idea into parts, these parts tend to be signified with headings. I do this because it makes it easier for me to write and iThnk it makes the information easier to digest.
I try to use bullet points where possible and pictures to help breakdown the idea. I do this because I find that I enjoy reading posts with graphics and simply laid out information much more than just scrawls of text.
Pictures Can be More Than Just Pretty
If I’ve got the time and it’s appropriate I will use an image to describe the essence of the post – the sort of ideas I write about lend themselves to infographics (see this post for an example).
Fine Tuning Ain’t Sexy But It Is Important
Life is pretty busy so I definitely don’t have as much time as I’d like to fine tune my posts. But when I do have a few spare moments to get out the magnifying glass and look over my scribblings I have one mission simplify, simplify, simplify.
Whether it’s adding bullet points or cutting out excess text, the general idea behind my fine tuning process is usually about brining out the essence of whatever I’m talking about. Sometimes when my ideas start off jumbled this simplification process actually means splitting one post into two posts.
Commitment Is Paramount
Blogging is hard work, it takes a lot of time and energy but what I’ve found so far is that the more I commit to blogging and social media the easier blog-worthy ideas tend to come up. In my experience if you don’t commit to writing then you never end up doing it and the irony is that once you’ve made the commitment to get writing you usually can’t understand why it took you so long to get around to it (hence the reason I’ve locked two posts per week).
What Tools Do I Use
- WordPress (via Web Browser & iPhone App)
- Adobe Fireworks (Image Editing)
- Windows Live Writer (Purpose Built Desktop Application For Writing Posts)
How Do You Write Your Posts?
This is the first time I’ve tried to analyse the way I write and I’m eager to learn – I’d love to hear your tips and find out more about your process.
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This post was written by Sam Schuurman (aka SocialSammy). You can connect with him on both Twitter and Linkedin. |