The View From Here: How Do You Write?

Today, Shayla and I discuss this question: How Do You Write? In Advance, On the Fly, or in Another Way?

With my schedule, and the fact that I’ve got two little boys who don’t know or care what a blog is, I always write in advance, totally out of necessity.  Sometimes that is several days in advance, and sometimes it’s the night before a post is published, but it’s always in advance.

When I wrote my old blog on Blogger, my posts were extremely random and sporadic, and I only wrote when inspiration struck.  Back then, I would always publish immediately after something was written, whenever that might be.  Now that I’m a bit more established and organized, I keep to my five days a week posting schedule, which absolutely requires planning ahead and scheduling.  And since I think of blogging as a very fun job, I’m always planning, planning, planning, much like I did as a teacher.  I never walked into a classroom unprepared, and I didn’t leave for the day until the next day’s lesson was set to go, so it makes since that my blog posts are just as planned and scheduled.

(My version of the editorial calendar. Kickin’ it old school.)

That might sound too rigid for some of you, but that’s just what works best for me, and I like knowing what I’m writing about each week.  Obviously, I give myself wiggle room to move posts and topics around, and I don’t have a strict schedule that I follow.  I just make a rough outline of possible posts for the week, and go from there.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, since I’m not usually writing about time sensitive things, it doesn’t necessarily matter if I schedule posts, much like a magazine article that is written at least a month in advance.  In fact, I’ll bet that many bloggers, especially those within the DIY and how-to niches, are scheduling posts in advance.  There’s just no other way to find that work/life balance, I think.

I never want my blog to become a source of stress, so I’ve found a rhythm that works well for me.  I know other bloggers have totally different routines, and I would love to hear about yours!  And don’t forget to check out Shayla’s response today on her lovely blog.

(Just an FYI, since we’re talking about posting schedules: I always publish my posts at midnight CST, except for the Monday edition of The View From Here, which is published at 10 am CST, to match with Shayla.)