I’m consider myself a novice at posting blogs, cannot seem to call it blogging.  As with a lot of things I do, I researched the basics and jumped right in.  I like to share my experience and experiences in hopes that I can help someone out or maybe at least entertain them.  So, I thought I’d give you a look at how a blog happens for me. 

I come up with ideas I’d like to share all the time, usually while working outside, or doing something else where a computer is not handy, so I outline them in my head.  Getting those ideas written down isn’t easy.   Typically what I do is take pictures of what I’m doing so that if that idea ever makes it ‘on paper’ I can add some color and graphics to it.

When I do blog writing, it’s usually in spurts.  Sometimes I just need to get a post out to meet a deadline I’ve given myself, so I force myself to write.  These times I usually stick to doing a final edit of a post in WordPress and publish it.  

Other times it’s because I have an itch to write. These times I’m usually in my note taking software, OneNote, and usually follow a flow:

1. Bullet point all the topics that are in my head.
2. Add an “outline” to bullet points. Usually just sub bullet points vs outline
3. Flesh out a draft to the outline of topics
4. Second pass at drafts/move text to WordPress
5. Format WordPress drafts and add graphics
6. Final review and publish

1 & 2 are meant to prevent me from losing ideas.  3-5 don’t always flow from one to the next.  I may be really interested in a topic and focus on moving that topic through the flow, sometimes all the way, but usually just to the next phase.  

The flow is how I was taught/learned to write.  It creates better finished products as my thoughts mature through the process.  My writing, however, is what it is.  Hopefully it’s not too awful and will continue to improve.

For example, on the day this post reached stage 3 it was bout 6 months ago and I had the following topics in each stage

•  7 ideas & outlines
• 4 first drafts (2 topics may never be appropriate to see the light of day)
• 3 drafts in WP waiting formatting (1 either I didn’t save the text or just created a template page for an idea)
• 2 waiting final review

This post was a long way to say I’m not a naturally affluent writer and each blog post takes time. And “free”/writing time is not something I have a lot of.  That’s why there can be long pauses between my posts even though there are plenty of ideas and wishes to get those ideas out.