Bulk writing: 5 reasons to plan several posts in one go

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Having put together The Organised Approach to Websites, writing a post now includes some planning - identifying a few key themes prior to putting together the details.

Now, if I have some spare time, I can spend it planning several posts - perhaps all five of my weekday instalments - and work on them a little at a time.

There are a few reasons why I think you should consider giving this method a try.

1.  Grouping tasks can be quicker.

In the mood to plan?  Plan all of your posts for the week.  Add brief thoughts for each one as you go.  Then you only have to fill in the details for each post instead of starting from scratch.  I'm finding it a lot easier to work this way, especially as I write five posts on consecutive days (I'm not including my Sunday post).

2.  You're less likely to miss a day.

Writing every single day is very hard to stick to for a long period of time.  It seems doable in the beginning, but there are times you just don't want to do it.

Writing when you're in the mood can help you to knock out a lot of posts in one sitting, or at least in an evening.  Focusing on the planning side of things means you can have short, sharp bursts of inspiration for each post, instead of getting into a heavy dialogue and burning out.

3.  You can move on if you get stuck.

It's a lot easier to step away from a post if you're only in the planning stage.  Summarising the key themes on a particular subject means you don't get so engrossed in the post, and you can move onto the next bit of planning with relative ease.

Before I started planning my posts, I found myself abandoning posts while in the middle of them.  I'd already spent a fair bit of time writing the post, changing things, deleting things, trying again, not getting very far.  Unfortunately, I didn't have drafts up and running while working on some of those posts, and I ended up deleting the content out of frustration.  Then I'd write a not so great post in a hurry and wish I hadn't bothered.  Not great really, is it?

Planning a post can make it easier to approach the more difficult topics.  Either that, or you'll find them hard to summarise even during the planning stage.  If a post isn't coming together when you're planning it, put it to one side.  Work on a different post, do something completely different, or take a break.  Whatever you choose to do, save the post as a draft before you go away.  Then you don't have to leave your browser open with the half-finished post waiting to greet you when you come back.

4.  Interruptions are less of an issue.

Ever had to go and do something else while in the middle of a post?  You can try and put aside all possible interruptions, but sometimes it isn't as easy as that.

Writing your headings before you write the detail should be fairly quick to do.  If you do get interrupted, you can finish the heading you're working on instead of having to finish the whole post you were on.  Noting down all of the headings before you do anything else means you can record a lot of information in a very short amount of time.  It's far less likely that you'll lose your train of thought, so long as you write good headings, of course.

5.  Writing a series actually becomes achievable.

I think that writing a series can generate some very strong content.  It's not always the case and some topics are better as separate posts, but if you can think of a good series to write, try planning all of the parts together.

You may come unstuck if you start writing the first post before you've decided how to organise the other posts.  Writing your headings for each part of the series will allow you to see how much content you have overall, where to divide the content into separate posts, how to make the running themes flow from one post to the next, and how to map your final post back to the opening points.

Writing a series that hangs together well could be a major boost for your site.  Planning the posts is a great way to get that series started.

What do you think?

Have you ever tried bulk writing?
Have you ever published a series?
Share your thoughts and experiences by posting a comment.

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