Just because I’m a blog coach doesn’t mean that cranking out a weekly blog post is easy. As a busy professional who works as a writer, editor, writing coach and blog coach, carving out the time is write a blog—especially my own—is hard. To be honest, I struggle with the fact that sometimes it’s just a whole lot easier to blow off writing my blog post.
Sound familiar?
I obviously needed my own blog coach. So I turned my techniques regarding how to write a blog on myself. After giving myself a stern but understanding finger wag along with a lecture about not giving into that voice that says that it won’t matter if I miss just this once, I set myself a goal. I would write and bank 20 blog posts as quickly as possible.
I know myself. I don’t like deadlines. And I do have a lot on my plate. I figured that this security blanket would be just the ticket. I could keep writing blog entries as ideas came up, but I’d have an emergency reserve. (Wow! Maybe I am learning something from my financial planner.)
So I calendered my blog sessions and started writing. I fleshed out ideas I had scribbled down months prior. I added material to blog posts drafts that were nothing more than a title. I looked for articles I had clipped and stuffed into a file, and emails I had stashed in my email blog folder, and wrote some more.
Here’s the funny thing. The more I wrote, the faster and more easily the blog posts flowed. It was like I had removed debris clogging a stream. Suddenly everything from ideas to copy started to surge.
Would my blog banking technique work for you? Until we’ve had a chance to chat, I have no idea. But that’s not the point. It’s not about what works for me. It’s about what works for you. Once you find that, the whole blogging process—and indeed life itself—gets easier.
And that’s what I love most about writing and being a writing/blog coach. Writing mirrors back all our strengths, our weaknesses and our flaws. Perhaps that’s why writing can be as scary as it is satisfying, but that idea is fodder for another blog. Working title? The Writing Mirror or The Write Reflection. Those may not be right, but they’re good enough for now.
Before I forget, I’m going to create a new post, write in one of those titles and save that working title as a draft. That way I can come back and flesh it out when I have more time. Or I might just post the working title in the blog chart I just developed. As you’ll see below, this chart not only gives me a place to dump all those stray blog ideas, it allows me to keep track of which ones I’ve written and which I’ve edited. There’s also a column to remind me to write introductory copy for that email I need to send out to promote each new blog post.
BLOG CHART
| Topic /Title | Blog Copy | Edit | Intro Copy | Date Posted | Date Emailed |
Whether you write your blog ahead of time or only when you can’t put it off any longer, this chart—or saving your ideas as online blog drafts—will serve you well. Should the urge to bash out a few lines of copy strike while you’re inputting your working headline, I have three words for you: Go for it.
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