Ask HN: What's your process of writing a blog post?

7 points·c_t_montgomery··4 comments

I've made it a point to start blogging recently, and with a huge thanks to Octopress, I actually enjoy it now.

I wrote about my typical process of writing a post here: http://cnnr.me/b/2012/01/my-blogging-process/

But I'm interested in hearing how HNers typically blog. Do you have any kind of process you usually follow before getting a post up?

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My first step is to stumble across a topic I think others may find interesting. Then I just start writing. The first pass generally comes out as a bunch of poorly organized random thoughts, but once that process is done I tend to have a much clearer idea of how I want to present the topic.

From there I can rearrange what I've already written, which is usually ~50% of the content, and fill in the rest. I will revise the post until I feel like it is coherent but I don't get too hung up on getting it perfect.

I started blogging back in the Fall so I'm just forming the blogging-habit but I'm finding this method works well for me. It removes the writers block problems I've experienced in the past and makes the process much more enjoyable.

This makes sense, and I can see how you'd be able to crank out posts from it. How do you go about keeping track of any "excess topics"? Typically, whenever I find something I like and dive into it, my mind can diverge the post into a few separate posts, which helps keep them to a good size.

Thanks for the comment and insight!

> How do you go about keeping track of any "excess topics?"

I usually have 2-3 posts going at any one time. I use a text editor to write my drafts and keep them in two local folders -- "posted" and "drafts." (I think there purposes are self-evident...). I'm sorry to say my system is neither sophisticated nor original but it works.

Clickable : http://cnnr.me/b/2012/01/my-blogging-process/

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