A systemless system for productive blogging
See the lady blog. Blog, lady, blog!
Do you have a system for blogging? A schedule? A spreadsheet with topics and times? A goal?
Wish I did. For a while I hoped that the Raewyn Gwilliam system would work for me. Every time she has an idea, she writes it as a sentence, which she saves as a draft title. Because it’s clear, accurate and specific, she remembers the whole idea. When it’s time to write, she opens WordPress, grabs a title that appeals and writes. Bingo!
I did the first part — for a while — but I’ve never used anything from my list of brilliant ideas. I also have truckloads of scribbly notebooks filled with other brilliant ideas.
Here’s what works best for me.
- Get an idea
- Blog it impulsively
- Publish it immediately
- Smile!
Life lessons for myself
- A blog is not a book
- Trust the moment
- Write less, publish more
- Get it done and make it fun.
Yes, I agree. Keep it short and simple, blog often. I am still laughing at your marvellous cartoon.
One day I’ll learn!
A system appeals to the organized side of my brain/personality, but the impulsive, wandering artist in me just wants to grab the moment when it arrives, & blog the hell out of it, then eat a snack, edit, & hit Publish… hey, maybe that’s MY system?! 😃
And a blog is just the place to let that wandering artist loose.
I have yond of ideas. I do use them on occasion but the best posts are spontaneous. Good system!
Tons of ideas – tons – I hate my phone 🙂
No no, I was enjoying that word “yond” … ideas like wands that yank me beyond the great yellow yonder
Oh, ok. I have always liked the word ‘yonder’ but I don’t get to use it much. Maybe it was a slip 😉
Please accept twelve vouchers for the word ‘yonder’ — free.
Ha ha – thanks!
The concept of organization appeals to me but the spontaneity aspect gets me the best material. There is nothing so powerful as writing in the moment of things. However, I do write ideas down hoping on a slow news day I can develop it into something interesting.
You can, you could, and maybe you won’t. Here we all are, doing exactly what we want at some level.
Because I have a less than adequate memory, I use OneNote to jot down ideas for posts. When I sit down to write a post, I go through the list of ideas. More often than not, I use one of them but there are times when just reading the list sparks another idea I use instead. I do schedule my posts so I can feel more leisurely about writing them.
You’re right, just reading the list can spark another idea. Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that. It’s a useful back up.
System? I can barely spell it, much less actually have one. I wish someone would give me a pattern to follow so I could tell what I have written about and when, and what pictures I have used. I often forget, well, perhaps more than ‘often’, thus either repeating something or forgetting any idea I once had.
Aha. I love spreadsheets, and they work for at least two weeks. But you can relax: if you can’t remember what you’ve already published, why would anybody else?
My system is pretty loose, which makes it flexible. I try to post once a week, and once a month post something that takes a really deep dive into an experience or information. I’m not always successful about that. The other thing I do is to keep an “idea roll” in a note on Evernote. I can access it pretty much anywhere, and if I think of something, be it a sentence, a paragraph, or just random bits and pieces, I can type it up and then come back too it later.
Everything *kinda* works, which is good enough for me!
Seems to me your system is fully consonant with your way of life! If one changed, maybe the other would — maybe not.