Serious Content Writing

You've got a website. A blog. You publish/sell content. You want to write great content. You don't have a lot of time. How can you possibly make it work for you with the schedule you have? With less than half an hour a day you can be turning out regular top-quality articles; several of them weekly! There are several key points that will make this work for you.

First, schedule a time. Find a time that works for you. Block out 20 minutes to a half hour in your daily schedule. It's your content creation time. It is helpful if it is the same time every day but it doesn't have to be. Right after you get up on Monday, just before dinner on Tuesday, when you get back from lunch on Wednesday, etc. Find the time slot. Then stick to it. No matter what.

Next, work with lists. Paper or electronic. It doesn't matter. If you use gadgets, go for it. If you don't, pen and paper is just fine. Find a process that works for you. But you must keep your lists handy. A couple of 3x5 index cards in your jacket pocket works for some. Or a small notebook. The Blackberry is fine for others. Jot down topics and ideas as they come to you. This is why you need to keep the materials for your lists handy. You never know where, or when, an idea will pop up. Millions of great ideas are lost daily because they don't get written down.

Check over your lists. Add notations and thoughts. Let the ideas incubate and gel. Later, when you go back to your original point, you will find there is more that can be added; fleshed out. Each time you write down a new idea take a moment and glance through your notes. Other thoughts will flow. This process actually gets better over time. You'll be surprised.

Don't be afraid to edit out elements that were added but, later, don't seem to go with the flow. Separate some into two. Don't be afraid to discard whole concepts if it's not going anywhere. As you work this system you will find you have more ideas than you can evere use.

When your appointed time arrives pick a topic from your list. Sometimes it will be the one with the most annotations and development. Sometimes it will be a bare-bones point that you haven't yet developed. Your mood will dictate. Spend the first few minutes doing a little online research to see what has already been written about the topic. Make point-form notes on what you find. There can be great material there. If you find something worthy of quoting, do so. Copy verbatum and make note of the source for attribution and citations. Always give credit where it's due.

By now your notes should be shaping the article. It's time to get down to the actual writing. As Charles Dodgeson wrote in Alice In Wonderland, "Begin at the beginning and go on til you come to the end. Then stop." Writing will flow if you let it happen. If you find yourself suffering from writer's block step away from your work for a few minutes. Walk outside. Don't think about what you need. Enjoy your surroundings. See other things. Then return to your work and get going again.

Don't be afraid to revise and re-write. If you just can't get anywhere with your selected topic set it asside and choose another. Working across several articles at the same time is fine. Move from one to the other and back again. Your goal is to complete one article but you may actually find that you will add content to several ideas in the processs. When the words flow, write.

I find that it helps to build your own guide for your writing. I use bullet points to itemize what I want to cover, order them to get the flow right, and then flesh them out into paragraphs. My bullet points come mostly from the notes I've been making over time after starting with the original idea. I add to them the missing points that become obvious once I start to order the list.

Writing in this fashion helps you get numerous articles with good content quickly and easily. Organizing your time and sticking to a schedule gets the job done painlessly actually helping overcome occasional writer's block. It can work for you.