Series, Blogging: How I Write a Series

I recently received an e-mail from a blogger asking how I’ve managed to write so many series in such a short period of time, and how I manage to have a new article for the current series every Monday, Wedensday, and Friday. In this post, I will divulge the methods I use in writing series. Let’s go…

Getting the Idea

Every series you write should start with a solid idea. This idea is the foundation - the basis - of the series. In the case of my past (and planned future) series, my ideas were:

• Blogging as an Amateur Blogger, and tips for Amateurs (Amateur Blogging Series)
• The steps involved in creating a new blog (New Blog Creation Series)
• Techniques to monetize your blog, going beyond what had been previously discussed (Advanced Monetization Series)
• A stream of tips that new bloggers may over look (Tips for New Bloggers Series (coming soon))
• Tips and Tricks for bloggers using WordPress (WordPress Tips and Tricks (coming soon))

How did I get each idea? Amazingly enough, the majority of those series were inspired by other people. The trick is to keep an open mind, and - every time you’re inspired for an entry topic - write down your ideas. Once you have some ideas collected, look them over. Do any of them spawn off multiple post ideas in your head (keeping in mind the “one topic per post” axiom)? If so, then you might want to write down - under the original idea - the other ideas. Over time, you’ll probably find a series developing.

The trick to getting series ideas is simply to read, and transliterate to your own blog’s niche. For exmaple: the Amateur Blogging Series was inspired by Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net. His entire website is a series of posts written about being a better professional blogger. I already knew I wanted to write for the amateur blogger, so I figure on starting a series about amateur blogging.

Another example? A reader asked me what all was involved in creating a new blog. I started writing a post on that subject, and quickly realize that it would be a very looooong post. I decided to break it up into multiple posts.

Yet another example? Darren Rowse - again - had written a “31 Days to Being a Better Blogger” series. I thought about that, and realized that he had assumed that the blogger reading that series had some experience. I also realized that new bloggers were asking him a lot of questions. Therefore, I decided to write a series on tips for new bloggers, including things that new bloggers may overlook from time to time.

Okay, so you’ve got your idea… Where to go from here?

Creating an Outline

Now that you have your series idea, you probably have some ideas for posts/topics within that series. Now’s the time to go back to your high school education, and start outlining. Each individual topic should be a roman numeral on your outline. Each roman numeral is a seperate post.

Once you have the initial post topics on there, it’s time to start expanding the outline. What do you want to cover in each post? Each of these items is a capitol letter in the outline. Once you have those, start thinking up the minor bits and pieces that make them up. Over time, you’ll see your outline develop.

Why an Outline?

Simple. If you didn’t write everything down in some sort of natural progression, you’ll wind up forgetting things you wanted to write about, and forgetting important details in your posts.

An outline allows you to get the preperation out of the way, early on, so that when you sit down to write your series articles, you’ll be able to do so, fairly quickly. For most series, each article takes me around ten or fifteen minutes - max. Err, that’s for the long ones.

Okay, you’ve got the outline… what next?

Writing the Posts

This is pretty straight forward, isn’t it? Well, maybe not.

Some popular issues?

• “I always get distracted when I sit down to write.”
• “I can never find the time to write.”
• “I can’t always write long articles with regularity, how can I guarentee things will show up on time?”
• “I keep forgetting details, and what I’m meaning to write.”

Let’s cover those:

Distractions

I’m very easily distracted. When I sit down at the computer to blog, I often intend to spend an hour or two, actively blogging. I usually wind up spending four or more hours surfing the ‘net, with a bit of blogging randomly interspersed. Why? I keep getting distracted.

When I sit down to write my articles, I usually do so on my laptop, away from home. In fact, every post of every single series on my website (at least, up to this point), has been written sitting at my local Denny’s (a 24/7 restaurant chain serving “american diner” style food). I go in, get some diet coke (or coffee), open the laptop, and start typing. I don’t stop until my laptop battery dies, around two hours later. Then, I pop open my “blog fodder” notebook, and I brainstorm for new post ideas.

The trick is to place yourself somewhere else. If you have a laptop, try turning off the wireless Internet connection, and sitting in your living room, dining room, or on your back patio. If that doesn’t work, try going to a local cyber cafe, or a local restaurant. So long as they aren’t very full/busy, they will usually have no problem with you sitting there, working. (NOTE: Cafe and diner style locations are best for this. So are fast food locations, although the high number of children and noise can lead to distraction in the fast food places.)

Don’t have a laptop? Go to your local library. You can usually use the computer at your local library for at least an hour at a time. If the library doesn’t have people waiting, they’ll often let you keep going, until they do. If you use up your allotted time, you can always sign back up for a computer.

How do you write from the library? Well, you can use a service like Writely, which acts as an online word processor, and lets you publish to your blog. Alternatively, you can simply log into your blog’s write system, and save your posts as a draft, until you’re ready to unveil the series.

Personally, I write in a text editor (notepad++) that allows me to keep multiple documents open (in tabs, much like firefox). Then, when I’m ready to post, I just copy and paste.

The Time to Write

The answer to this is very simple. Write a little bit here and there, and when you do have time to write, write several posts in one sitting. Remember, you don’t have to publish the posts, right away. Sure, it may take you a while to get your series complete, but that’s fine.

Another tip is to set aside an hour each day, specifically for writing long articles for your blog. This way, you’ll find that even when you don’t have a series in progress, you can still churn out some lengthy (or pillar) articles.

How Can I Follow A Posting Schedule

The biggest issue people have will probably be the fact that they can’t guarentee being able to release new posts on a certain schedule. Well, there are two options…

First, you can publish articles from the series, whenever you write them, leading to your series taking longer, and not putting out regular articles. Sometimes, this can keep people coming back to you, in the long run.

Secondly, you can do as I do and pre-blog.

Pre-blogging is publishing your entries with a date that is in the future.

Personally, I write all of the articles for a series, ahead of time. Once I complete the series, I start loading the articles into my blogging system. I decide which days of the week the articles are coming out on, and I decide when my first will appear. Then, I set the dates on the posts appropriately. On the vast majority of blogging systems, this will keep the post hidden until the date in question arrives.

Every single article in every single series I write is posted on the same day, usually within a twenty minute time span. I simply date them in the future so they’ll appear at the appropriate times. By pre-blogging, I’m able to ensure a steady stream of posts from my current series.

Forgetting Details

First off, you should have an outline. If you don’t, go see the first part of this article, on outlining. Once you have your outline, keep it open on your computer, so you can refer to it. Alternatively, print it out. Keeping your outline in front of you will enable you to remember the details.

Beautifying Your Posts

Everyone, I’m sure, has noticed that I seperate my series posts into headings and sub-headings. This is beautification of your posts, and makes it easier for readers to notice subject changes, and follow along.

I do the heading by using HTML tags. In my case, my major headings (within entries) are done using <h2> tags. My sub-headings are done use <strong> tags.

Personally, I do my beautification as I go along, simply putting the HTML tags into the document as I write it. There’s one small drawback to this. I can’t use rich text editors to post my entries. I can, however, use any raw HTML editor, or the HTML pane of a rich editor. Personally, I use Ecto 1.8.8 (and will continue to, despire version 2.0 being in development (which includes a rich editor)) for posting my series entries. It’s as simple as copy/paste.

Some people prefer to block off in their mind where beautification should go, and come back later on to do their prettyifying. It’s really up to you. The point is, keep it easy to follow.

That’s My Strategy…

So that’s it! My strategy for writing series is as follows:

• Come up with an idea
• Outline the series
• Write the posts, away from distractions (in my case, away from home)
• Beautify the post with headings and sub-headings
• Pre-date the posts and publish them all at once, so they’ll appear on a set schedule
• Sit back and watch people learn

Following that strategy is how I manage to churn out so many series, in a relatively short amount of time.

Speaking of… Got an idea for a series? I’m always looking for new ideas, and if you’ve got stuff to contribute, I’ll be glad to co-author a series with you. Head on over to the contact page, and shoot me the info. I won’t use your submitted ideas, unless you say its okay.

If you’re writing a series about blogging, let me know, so I can link to it from MindBlog.

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