How I Write Blog Posts
Updated April 2020
Okay so I absolutely love writing blogs posts. It allows me to talk about my thoughts and feelings in a more creative way but also, hopefully, helps other people and encourages them to talk about their thoughts and feelings too.
Some days I’m fully prepared with all my photos and notes at the ready. However, some days, I’m writing it just hours before it’s meant to go live. Some people have commented on how organised I must be to be able to write blog posts and do my uni assignments and spend hours binging Netflix like everyone knows that I do… So, I thought I’d write a quick step-by-step guide as to how I write my blog posts. I know that maybe not everyone writes in this way, so I’m only talking about what I do personally.Netflix
1. Procrastinate
If you know me personally, you will know that I procrastinate…A LOT! Even though I love writing, I still doubt myself and my abilities. Therefore, if I’m procrastinating, I’m not doing something that I could potentially fail at and so aren’t worrying. However, I’m actually writing this post almost a week before it goes live. Which I’m pretty proud of! However, one of the reasons for this is because when this post goes live, I will be doing my final preparations for my presentation that I will be doing in the afternoon. So actually, I’m just procrastinating doing that work…oops.
Click here to read my blog post all about procrastination.
2. Create A List
I have an ever-growing extensive list of ideas for posts that I love to create. So, when I actually decide to sit down and do some blog stuff I read through that list and make a smaller list of ones that I would be interested in doing for my upcoming post. This will depend on my mood, how much uni work I have, what time of year it is and if there are any special events coming up. For example, I decided on the topic of this post as I haven’t really been doing anything exciting lately. Also, as it is coming up to Christmas and the New Year, my upcoming posts will be all about that. Therefore, I had to think of something to go in between. I settled on this idea as I enjoy learning about how other people do things, so hopefully this may interest some of you too.
3. Do Some Research
Depending on the topic I often do research about what to write. Whether that’s finding facts or looking at other people’s posts for layout and style inspiration. I then browse through my thousands and thousands of photos (I wish I was exaggerating…) to see if I have any appropriate photos to suit my decided post. If not, I browse on Giphy for any matching gifs or take new photos. I use Giphy quite a lot as a gif can often represent a situation better than a photo can. My go to searches are typically; Community, Hannibal, Supernatural, Friends, RuPaul’s Drag Race and Sherlock. They pretty much have a suitable gif for any occasion.
4. Write By Hand
For some reason I prefer to initially write my blog posts by hand. I have a notebook dedicated to my blog scribblings and it’s helped me out loads. I guess it’s like doing multiple drafts. My mind seems to work differently when I’m writing compared to when I’m typing. My notebook is covered in scribbles and sketches, but it really helps me process and think about what I’m writing.
5. Copy Into Word
After I have handwritten it, I then copy it into Word. This allows me to see any mistakes that I have made and change sentence structures. Word also allows me to have more of an idea about how the blog post will be laid out and makes it easier to visualise.
6. Insert Into SquareSpace
After copying it into Word I then copy and paste it into SquareSpace. I then make any further changes and insert the pictures and/or gifs that I have found/taken. Now it looks like a real blog post.
7. Proofread, Add Tags and Schedule
Finally, it’s time to proofread, add tags and schedule it. I proofread my posts several times to ensure that it is written to the best standard that I can do. I’ll often ask someone else to proofread it also. By this point I will have re-read the post so many times that I sometimes miss a mistake – so I find that having someone else read it is super helpful. Tags are added so the blog can be found through a variety of categories. And scheduling makes life so much easier. On the odd occasion that I’m super organised I am able to follow these steps and have a number of blog posts ready to go. Hopefully, I will be able to get better at this in the New Year.
I hope that you enjoyed having a little nose into how my brain works when it comes to blog posts. If anyone has any other tips on writing blog posts or would like me to do something similar for other things, just drop me a message; I’m always looking for new ideas.
And don’t forget to follow my social media for updates about myself and the blog.
Cerys x
