I’ve been thinking a lot lately about writing more, and making my workflow more efficient can surely help with that right? This post is where I’m at with my blog post workflow, from coming up with an idea to publishing it, and a couple extra steps.
Step 1: Find an Idea
If I sit down to write and already have an idea, then great, that’s step 1 done.
Unfortunately, more often than not, I don’t, so I need to find one.
I mentioned this the other day in my post about blog boredom, but I find stealing others’ blog topics to be the best strategy.
Step 2: Just Write
If you’ve read my blog before, you may know of my battles with the phrase “just write”. Regardless of that for now, that’s the second step: just write.
Very stream of consciousness, no blog frontmatter, no hyperlinks, no photos. Just write.
No capitalisation, no punctuation, no concern for phrasing. Just write.
Pro tip: voice to text has been very helpful in the past. Since I can speak quicker than I can write, not getting distracted and just letting the thoughts flow is sometimes much easier this way.
In the end, my goal is to just get the words on the page.
Step 3: Rewrite
My stream of consciousness isn’t very readable, even to me sometimes, so refining is crucial if I want anyone to be able to read it.
Is this an extra step, yes, but the benefit is I get to take a break and revisit the post with fresh eyes and mind, and polish everything.
I also take this opportunity to address spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, punctuation, capitalisation, etc. I’ll also add any hyperlinks and/or images I want in the post.
One of these days I’ll release a purely stream-of-consciousness post to show what this looks like, I think that could be cool.
Step 4: Frontmatter
Hugo, Bearblog and I’m sure many other platforms and frameworks use some yaml frontmatter to set <head> info in markdown files. At this point I get all of that ready; things like the title, post ID, url, Twitter card image, the emoji next to the title, what metadata I’m going to show under the title, and a bunch more.
My ADHD/autism enjoys this step very much, I have to remind myself while writing that this step comes later, don’t get distracted…
Step 5: Post
With all that, the post is ready to be published. Whether I schedule it for later or make it go live immediately, now’s the time. Success!
Step 6: Socials (Optional)
This is an optional step and sometimes I’ll skip it depending on how much time I have or if I just don’t feel like doing it, etc.
I’m not even sure how much, if anything, it does for me, but may as well, you know?
Step 7: Add to Sitemap
I like to keep on top of my sitemap because it’s fun to do, but also it’s a useful tool for visitors.
That’s It
Yeah, and that’s it! That’s my entire workflow for blog posts, from idea to publish and more. I’m curious about others’ workflows on Hugo and other frameworks. Be sure to #JulyReply my post with your own workflow (and if you do, make sure you message me so I can take a look)!
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