When Planning Ahead Keeps You Blogging
I began blogging back in November 2020 to prepare for the release of my first ever children's book, Princess Gabriella and the Never-Ending Kiss.
At first, thinking of a concept, prepping the post, and then writing within the same week would take hours with some of my longer posts taking at least two days. I didn't mind it at first as blogging was a fun new adventure to go along with my dream of publishing.
It didn't take long though to see the process of how I was writing was not going to be sustainable. This is when I decided to sit down and begin planning.
I knew my blog was going to focus around self-publishing along with short stories I either imagined or experienced for myself. So, starting from those points, I created series and templates to use for future posts. Some of these include:
Guest Posts
Childhood Memoires
Random Generator Short Story Challenges
Book Reviews
Self-Publishing Tips and Tricks/How Tos
Have A Planner
Before I did any planning. I purchased myself a happy planner from the local craft store. These planners have removable rings for a spine which gives access to removing the calendar months.
This allowed me to spread out the months and write in what I was planning on posting for a specific week. Having this ability ensured I didn't do repeat posts and alternated my series accordingly. This planning process only takes a few minutes of my time and is pretty simple.
Ideas List
When first launching a blog it's easy to want to write all your good ideas at once. This can result in having too much content to absolutely zero in an instance. This is why I keep an ideas list. In my phone, I keep a notes page so when I think of an idea I can make a quick note about it. This allows me to have the next 3 months' worth of blogs already planned before even writing them down in my planner.
I also use Pinterest as a great source of inspiration. I, of course, take the inspiration and make it my own. Scrolling through Pinterest even for five minutes should give you at least 1 to 2 post ideas. So whenever I'm ready to plan I can grab from my list and begin.
Prepping Blog Posts
After having my planner already filled with ideas for the next 3 months, I give myself the next easy task of prepping the posts. This includes writing out the title, header, an outline of the post, while adding in my signature along with any related photos. Since many are series based, I usually copy over the same template as before and replace any old content with the current content.
Writing
Having the blogs prepped beforehand allows me to choose any post I want to write when I feel inspired. I don't have to worry about all the downloading or outline because it's already been done which gives me time to say what I want to say without the hassle.
I can even knock out 1-3 posts in one sitting depending on how much time I have during the day.
Overall, this method has saved me so much time as I can schedule the post several weeks out in advance and don't have to worry week to week if I have something ready for the following week.
Deciding to plan the blog 3 months in advance has saved me so much time. In fact, I've already planned the rest of 2022!
How do you plan out your blog or writing schedule? Let me know in the comments below!
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