Nov 22, 2011 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Blogging for the long haul

When I was a teenager, I was vehemently opposed to scheduling creativity. Writing isn’t the type of thing that you can fit into an allotted time slot, I thought. Of course, as a teenager, I also had the time and leisure to sit down and write whenever I wanted.

Nowadays, like most bloggers, that thing called life often gets in the way of writing. We’re busy people and, most of the time, blogging simply takes a backseat to our various responsibilities. But if we didn’t want to write, we wouldn’t be here at the Daily Post, would we?

Thankfully, I’ve grown out of my militant teenage years and had a few realizations about the benefits of scheduling writing time. One of the most important things is being realistic. Ask yourself, when am I most productive? And how much can I realistically write? Without a base understanding of your goals and expectations, it’s difficult to gauge a) how much time you should schedule for writing and b) when to optimize your writing time. If you’re a morning person, can you get up a half-hour early once a week to write a post or two? Similarly, if you find that writing daily is too much, but once a week is just enough, then go for it. It’s all about what works for you.

Which leads me to my second point: deciding to write once a day or once a week isn’t a one-time decision. Instead, each writing session you’ve set aside for yourself requires a renewed commitment. To keep your energy up, get a blogging buddy. We’ve posted about this in the past on Daily Post — like an exercise routine, finding someone to motivate you and make sure that you’re sticking to your goals is a great, mutually-beneficial way to keep your morale up. Don’t forget that you can even ask for feedback from your buddy with the Writing Helper tools on your Add New post page.

Lastly, just because you’ve decided to schedule a time to write, that doesn’t mean that’s the only time you can write. Even as a blogger, keep a notebook with you and jot down ideas, phrases, story lines the old school way. Better yet, download a mobile WordPress app and blog on the go, either by beginning draft posts, publishing short updates, or trying out photo blogging. Similarly, if you’ve made a schedule, but the words just won’t come, don’t force it. Though the more you write, the more ideas you’ll have, some days it’s just not in us. And that’s okay! Making yourself feel guilty will only make you dread the next time you sit down in front of your computer. It’s about practice and finding balance; blogging slowly and steadily means you’ll be able to stick with it for the long term.

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  4. The biggest help (to me) is to have a few posts that you can schedule ahead of time. I find that I’m most productive in cycles, so I take advantage of that and write several posts, and I set them to publish in the future, note it in my calendar and I’m ahead… this is great in case you can’t think of anything to write about (can’t imagine!) or if you run short on time (company visiting, vacation, etc.) – thanks WordPress… LOVE that feature!

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    2. I agree it is a great idea. I have a “site of the week” feature on my fiction writer’s and books blog. I stack up about 4 or 5 in a row (a whole month’s worth) and use the time between each post to investigate each site a bit more. Helps save on time.

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  5. Great blog! I’ve recently set up a morning writing slot for myself before I go to work, and my productivity is much higher. Keeping a notebook in the kitchen has also been useful to me as it’s usually when I am cooking that I get inspired.

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  6. Wonderful suggestions. I’ve found my creativity tends to come in spurts too – that’s when I schedule a few posts out. And if the creativity is just not there, I’ve finally learned it’s okay to have fewer posts than I’ve planned on. Better than burning out, as I’ve seen happen to more than one blogger.

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  8. I think the difficult thing is that when you talk about a topic with your friends, sometimes you don’t really find the urge to want to revisit the topic – so it’s hard to blog about the topic and post it… and then reply to comments that may come.

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  11. Great post and piece of advice! I’m still a newbie in public writing though and still lack a lot. Do you have some advice and writing tips for me? I love to blog and write, but I guess I need some support and source of inspiration…^^’
    I’d love it, of you could stop by at my little blog. Feel free to comment and write anything you like to (hopefully it’s something nice! :P).

    http://inashome.wordpress.com/

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  12. Good suggestions. I do morning pages most every day. Usually, I find a line or two that give me the jump start for my blogging entry. It will take me anywhere from an hour to two hours to do both. Some days, the words flow and other days, it is like pulling teeth. And then, I write about that.

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  13. The W.P. mobile app (for iPhone and iPad) is really a great instrument for posting every time you want to. It’s useful for writing out from home.

    I love writing, articles and posts on my blog. I allways try to post every day, but sometime I do not succeed. I love writing in the evening (right now, Italian time!)

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  16. Excellent advice, Erica. A blogging buddy? That’s certainly something I might look into. Jotting down ideas – when not near the computer – is great. It’s also led me to revamp what I originally planned to write. Not that that is a bad thing. 😉

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