My #1 Tip for Creating Better Content: Write in Advance
Photo by Libertinus
As I write this, it’s a Friday, and I don’t expect anyone to see this post until roughly six days from now. I have another post to write after this one, but if I don’t finish it tonight, I have plenty of time to do so. I can take as much time as I need to say exactly what I want to say.
It took months for me to develop the habit of writing posts in advance, but it’s now something I would recommend to anyone for all non-news and non-time sensitive content. If you’ve been meaning to develop the habit but haven’t yet been able to do so, resolve to start from now. It is the single best thing you can do to improve the quality of the content you create. Perhaps more importantly, it will take a big chunk of stress out of your content creation routine.
Why it matters
If you write and publish posts in one sitting, you will have to rush them. If you sleep-in and have to publish a post before you go somewhere, you’ll be racing against the clock to produce a publishable post. You can’t do your ideas justice in these conditions, nor can you write the same post twice. If your stellar idea translates into a rushed post, it’s wasted.
If we’re struggling to fit content creation into a busy day, it’s almost inevitable that we will cut the process down more than we should. The most likely place where we will try to save time is proofing and editing. Unfortunately, big typos and errors in expression can spoil an otherwise quality article by creating a jarring reading experience. Publishing a post without proofing it properly is a disservice to your content.
If your content creation routine is a ‘hand-to-mouth’ one, you might find yourself trying to come up with post ideas when you settle down to write. When it works, this is fine, but when it doesn’t — and sometimes it won’t — you may find yourself without an article to publish. You can’t write without an idea, and sometimes ideas take time.
If the above sounds like your content creation routine, you certainly have nothing to be ashamed of. Developing the habit of writing posts well before you intent to publish them is a tricky one, because separating publishing from writing is almost like separating the reward from your work. Breaking any habit is not easy, but in this case, it is truly worth trying.
Writing content in advance can result in articles which are more likely to get links, comments and do well on social media.
Here’s why
1. By writing without an impending deadline, you can say exactly what you want to say. You can give each point you make the weight it deserves, and take the time to complete your thoughts. You should never need to end abruptly because you have to go somewhere. If you’re interrupted, you can save your work and pick it up later. This will help considerably when it comes to making your articles as value-packed as they can be.
2. You can develop your ideas over the course of days, rather than in a few minutes. You’ll never again have to say: “That article seemed like a good idea at the time…” Having a few days to mull over your ideas can ensure that only the quality ones ever see the light of day.
3. You can craft your content instead of manufacturing it. Writing and publishing in the same sitting often encourages a manufacturer’s mindset: “What’s the minimum I need to do to create a publishable item?” Giving yourself plenty of time to create content allows you to truly polish it.
4. It’s less stressful, which is always good. If you associate content creation with feelings of pressure and stress you will start to think of it as a chore rather than a fun hobby. Knowing that you can fail to finish a post today without your subscriber count dropping and your traffic disappearing will make the writing process a lot more enjoyable!
5. It allows you to relax. There’s nothing quite like queuing up my posts to future-publish during the week and being able to run two blogs on autopilot for six out of seven days in the week. If all you have to worry about is answering emails and moderating comments, blogging seems a whole lot easier.
6. You can start to write more than you use. I think it’s useful to equate the process to personal finance. Writing content hand-to-mouth is like living hand to mouth. You spend as much as you make and go in to debt when unexpected expenses come up. The habit of writing in advance has finally allowed me to start repaying some of that debt, but the next step and the holy grail is to start saving content like you might start saving money: so you can take a three week break from blogging with all the content needed to cover it, or go on vacation without having to mobilize an army of guest-posters. Once you develop the habit of writing in advance, you can start to develop the habit of writing more than you intend to publish. However, I’m still working on that one. Maybe one day when I’ve developed the habit myself I can share what I’ve learned.
Here’s how
Set aside one morning or afternoon on the quietest day of the week where you will write all non-news posts for the following seven days. I suggest one day because setting aside two days makes it tempting to put everything off until day 2.
Plan which posts you’re going to write in the week leading up to writing day. You can do this just about anywhere: in the car, on public transport, on your lunch-break or before you go to sleep. Each time you think of a fitting idea, write it down and, if you’re inspired, jot down a few points you intend to cover. If you’ve ever written down an abstract sentence or idea one day, only to return to it a few days later and have no idea what you meant or where you were going with it, you’ll understand why it’s a good idea to add a little description.
Once you have your editorial calendar sorted out, all that’s left to do is write. If possible, I suggest doing this on a second computer which isn’t connected to the internet. In fact, just about the only two programs I use on my laptop are Text Edit and iTunes. I write really fast in this environment because there’s nothing better to do. I can’t check emails or find some other distraction because I haven’t even set up the internet on it yet. If you don’t have a spare computer, I’d recommend disconnecting the internet while you write, and adding links and so on later. I know some HTML, so I generally format posts as I write them, transfer the text files with my USB thumb drive, and slot them into WordPress.
Once your posts are edited and formatted, set them to future post during the week (if your blogging software allows it). This saves you the trouble of having to log in and publish your posts individually.
My next goal is to write one extra feature per week and save it. As I’m currently publishing two features a week, this should hopefully allow me to save up one week’s worth of content for each of my blogs each month. In three months, I’ll have enough content saved that I can run both blogs on auto-pilot for three weeks. By 2009, when I plan to travel quite extensively, I could have ten weeks (or 70 days) worth of content saved and ready to go.
Good habits can be powerful things, but they’re not easy to develop. I do hope I’ve convinced you that the writing in advance habit is truly worth aiming for.
