Summary

The article discusses a strategy for maintaining a regular release of new blog posts by building a backlog and releasing at an average pace.

Abstract

The article, titled "Writing That Works Around Real Life," discusses strategies for maintaining a regular release of new blog posts despite the unpredictability of daily life. The author advocates for building a backlog of completed drafts and releasing them at an average pace, rather than trying to write and publish every day. They compare this approach to writing novels, where multiple drafts are often written and edited before publication. The author also emphasizes the importance of patience and not building up too much of a backlog, as this can lead to delaying the release of one's work. Overall, the article encourages writers to be patient, consistent, and strategic in their approach to publishing content.

Opinions

The author believes that building a backlog of completed drafts is essential to maintaining a regular release schedule.
The author suggests that releasing content at an average pace, rather than trying to write and publish every day, is a more sustainable approach to blogging.
The author compares writing blog posts to writing novels, emphasizing the importance of multiple drafts and editing before publication.
The author cautions against building up too much of a backlog, as this can lead to delaying the release of one's work.
The author emphasizes the importance of patience and consistency in maintaining a regular release schedule.

Blogging tips

Writing That Works Around Real Life

How to make the regular release of new stories a realistic aim.

Sometimes you’ll have a dry spell… Photo by Christoph von Gellhorn on Unsplash

I see a lot of writers here on Medium who advocate publishing every day. That is more or less what I am aiming for, too, as I discussed here.

I also see people saying, hey, don’t publish every day or you’ll burn out…

So how do you find the balance?

Now, I write a lot. The thing is, I can’t write on every single day of my life. There’s going to be things that come up. Some days I can write more than one blog post or chapter — two, maybe even three — and others I can’t.

Plus, there are vacations, etc…

It seems to me, therefore, that there’s only one sure way to be sure of publishing daily (or at least regularly) on Medium, web-novel sites, or anything similar. It’s based around two things:

Build a backlog
Releasing at your average pace (not faster)

Here’s my system.

Here on Medium, I currently have around ten stories in my drafts folder that are complete, ready to either submit to a publication or release directly. I have another couple dozen which are at the ‘idea’ stage.

The idea of having material that is ready but not yet released is actually very familiar to fiction authors. You can’t write a novel all in one go, after all. And even when it’s finished, there are often slow processes to go through — editing, cover art, etc — that require patience.

In the meantime, you can work on the next novel, so that by the time one is released, the next one might be 80% done or more.

At least, that’s what I do.

Sometimes I have several novels drafted and ready for release, such as when I wrote first drafts of all five Druids Stones Saga novels before releasing the first one.

It’s also what happens when I write on the web-novel site Royal Road. There, I try to release a new chapter every day. In order to achieve that, I’m typically writing the first draft of the chapter at least a week earlier. Then I go through this process:

Complete a second draft of the chapter.
Wait a few days.
Final checks/proofread.
Publish the chapter.

As I’ve said elsewhere, a delay of a few days can beneficial for the creative process. A ‘loop’ of around a week from writing to release works well on Royal Road and on Medium, while it’s typically more like 3–6 months for novels.

The balance

There is no point in trying to build up too much of a backlog because it means your stuff is not getting read.

The flip side of that situation is that you can’t publish faster than you can write. At least, not sustainably. That’s why I said earlier that you need to release stories at your average writing pace.

Therefore, I’d advise all writers to be patient, and build up just enough to ride out the dry spells. Don’t release everything that you’ve built up. It’s like a savings account; the backlog helps you get past ‘life stuff’ that you haven’t even seen coming.

Overall, then, you will still be aiming to release at the same rate that you write. Just ensure that this is done in a consistent way by always having a few stories or chapters waiting to come through.

I hope that was useful to you. I’d be interested to hear about your own process in the comments.

And good luck with your writing!

A couple of things. First, a shoutout to Gregory Russell Benedikt for this great article, These Are the Good ol’ days that These Are The “Good Ol’ Days” That You’ll Look Back on Nostalgically. It made me think!

Also, you can get my posts direct to your inbox. Do that here! And if you’re not yet a Medium member, consider supporting me and thousands of other writers by signing up for a membership with this link, Doing so will support me directly with a portion of your fee, and won’t cost you extra. If you do, thank you so very much!

Want to Write More? Narrow Down Your Ideas

A psychology-based strategy for creatives

medium.com