A question I’m often asked is whether there’s an easy way to write a blog post. Of course, the easiest and quickest posts to write, are the ones where you share a news article and write a few sentences of commentary about it. But when it comes to writing a ‘proper’ post, this is my seven step process: I hope it gives you something to follow that makes it simpler and easier for you too.
Step One: I start the process off using paper and pen. For me there’s something in the process of physically writing down my thoughts on paper that helps my brain work out what I’m trying to say. It makes the whole thing a lot easier. It also means that if I change something, I can see how it’s developed, and access my earlier thoughts more easily than I could if I was deleting my words on screen.
Step Two: start with your blog post idea in the middle of a bit of paper and surround the idea with the main points you want to make, in the style of a mind map. When I wrote a blog post about the five things you need if you want to get blogging and keep blogging, I started it off with a title in the middle of a bit of paper, and then drew seven lines out from the idea: one for each of the five things, and one each for the introduction and conclusion.
Step Three: write what you want to say about each of those key points. Write what you would say to someone if they were sitting with you and you were telling them about that point. You can make these bullet points, or write whole sentences, whatever works for you. For the five things blog post, I wrote whole sentences around each of the main points, which isn’t uncommon for me.
Step Four: now you have the bones of your blog post, decide the order in which you want the points to flow. Sometimes the order you’ve got them in will work, other times it’ll make more sense to change the order.
Step Five: type out your blog post. If your planning is in bullet points, flesh them out with a sentence or two, or whatever feels appropriate, but sticking to the point. If you’ve written sentences around the key points, type those out, editing as you go if appropriate. With the five things blog post, all I really had to do was type out what I’d written on my planning sheet, and then add a better introduction and conclusion.
Step Six: read your blog post through to see what connecting sentences are needed, and make any edits, to make it flow. Reading it out loud will help you to make sure that it sounds like you. Editing can include changing the wording so that it reads better, breaking up paragraphs, adding sentences to aid flow, changing the order of the key points. For my five things blog post, I shortened the initial introduction so that I got to the point a lot quicker; and I added a personal story to the conclusion, to illustrate why these five cornerstones of blogging are so important.
Step Seven: add the appropriate Categories, Tags, Links, and Images to your post. Now you’re ready to PUBLISH!!
I hope that gives you a process you can adapt to your own style, and that it makes it easier for you to write your next blog post.
This post was originally published in my weekly newsletter, Sunday Sunshine. If you’d like more blogging tips, along with the occasional cartoon, sent to your inbox each week, click the link below and sign up. You’ll also get a copy of my Blogging Hacks and a Story Cupboard template for free!
