The Editorial Calendar
A while ago, I finally got on the bandwagon and committed to creating an editorial calendar. It was more of a loose conceptual calendar of what I wanted to blog about than a specific one.
Regardless, it was a huge improvement to what I’d been doing before which was totally flying by the seat of my pants. However, it wasn’t as good as it needed it to be. I had a full (overfull) schedule (and still do), and I found myself stressing over what to write and how to get the best images. It just caused my writing to be more forced and less natural.
Mainly because I didn’t have a chance to think about what I wanted to write and was making myself just put fingers to keyboard. Feeling pressured to come up with something fabulous took some of the fun out of blogging.
One of my goals is to post more consistently. Planning is a big part of being able to write great blog posts.
The goal for my 2018 editorial calendar was to create a topical calendar that will stay the same on a monthly basis. I’m sure by the time I get to June it might change, but I know what I want to write about and what I feel I have enough to write about.
I then took things a step further and told myself I needed to come up with a month’s worth of specific posts to write for each topic AND write the posts, at least in part, prior to the start of the month. This was scary for me to say I was going to commit to. But by doing this I knew I could stay far enough ahead of when a post needs to be published to make sure I’m not posting things at the last minute.
I use an old fashioned paper method to organize my calendar. I like the monthly view and use lots of post its. I can write my ideas on the post its and move them around as necessary. I keep a running pile of post its of ideas I come up with so I can search through them when I need an idea.
I started on this process awhile ago when I had a bit more time to get a jumpstart on things. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to do what I set out to do. I felt so much better about what I was writing that it motivated me to write more. Now the key is just staying at it.
What are your best blogging practices?
