Today, I’d like to talk about Blogging and Writing. More specifically, Blogging while Writing.
Blogging instead of Writing.
It’s becoming more and more necessary for you – a Creative…
(Sidebar: I think this applies to any creative endeavor, but since this is focused on Writing, I’ll stick with that)
– to have some kind of online presence where people can come and see what you’re up to and what you’ve got to offer.
I know that Blogging isn’t the first thing to come to mind when you start talking about Social Media and “Online Platforms,” but if I may be allowed a small digression, I’d like to urge you to consider: The Blog.
Why?
Because – and I’m sure you’ve read this in other places, but it bears repeating – your blog is the only place online where *You* have complete over what people see when they visit.
Other sites – and I’m sure you know of a few – are all subject to the whims of algorithm. That means that you, too are also subject. If you’ve got, say, 500 followers on Twitter and you post something, you can be sure that not all 500 are going to see it because of said algorithms.
On your Blog, however, you control all the content. And content, as they say, is King.
So is consistency.
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you’ve got to Blog every day. I certainly don’t. I Blog twice a week. That’s the schedule that I can sustain – that’s the important part. Find a schedule that you can maintain comfortably (Right now) and stick to it.
I say “Right now” because that schedule may change at some point. I used to blog three times a week and, for a while, it was something that I could maintain. Eventually, it got to be a bit much, so I dialed it back to two days – after letting my readers know what was going to happen.
Maintaining a schedule is important because you want folks coming back to your Blog and, if they don’t know when to show…
They won’t show up at all.
So now you’re committed to Blogging. Congratulations! You’ve got a deadline.
Speaking of deadlines, here’s where the Writing comes in . You’ve still got to get your writing done. No, in this case, Blogging does *Not* count. You’ve still got to create that content that you’re showcasing on the Blog.
How do you do it?
It all comes down to scheduling.
Wait, wait, just hear me out…By scheduling, I don’t mean making lists and color coded calendar entries (Mmmm….alliteration) – although I totally do that myself.
What I mean is taking the time to look ahead – even if it’s only a week – and find out where you can slip the Blogging in.
This isn’t to downplay the importance of the Blog, but you can’t blog about content you haven’t created yet, right?
What I try to do is grab snippets of time – you know the ones I’m talking about: Those times when you’ve only got 5 minutes or so to kill. Those add up.
Yes, you could be doing actual Writing during those times but, for me, five minutes is an ideal time to jot down a couple of things for my Five-Thing Thursday posts, or sketch out an idea for my longer (Usually) Sunday posts.
And once I’ve got those down, I’ll type them up – if I’ve written them long hand, or paste them into the blog, if I’ve gotten them in an electronic format. And I’m done. I try to do this as far ahead of time as I can, so I can get back to squeezing in snippets of writing time.
Thanks for reading.
Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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