My Writing Process & How I Plan & Write My Blog Posts

what are you working on right now?

I’m working on growing another human being. It’s an amazing thing and I have so many things I want to say about it but I’m just not sure how.  Pregnancy changes your life in such unimaginable ways. Until you've been there, you can never understand how much. 

I’m definitely seeing growth as a person because of the pregnancy and letting it move me in my writing. I'm trying to process the fact that another human life is growing inside of me and I can’t say that it isn't affecting my content. 

There’ll be a motherhood series on the blog through September and October once a week.

At the same time I’m in this entrepreneurial whirlwind.  I can't read/ write enough about starting a business right now.I have this passion burning inside of me, I want  to make more of this online space. I've been working on my writing skills, doing freelance and trying to  branch out and help people to create their best content

Because of that, you'll be seeing  a series of writing posts. There'll also be a series called Cup of Inspiration featuring different online entrepreneurs. I've been letting all these ideas that are constantly flowing through my brain at a hundred miles an hour out and seeing where that takes me.

how does your work differ from others in it's genre?

I don’t know that I fit into a genre in the first place. I'm a just a teen mom, living the island life and learning  along the way. I want to make a difference in the world, and I’m constantly dreaming of ways to do that.

My work is ‘different’ because I lived it. I’m in it and I wrote it *click to tweet*

I don’t have the perfect life of the perfect blog with perfect pictures and perfect children, and I’m okay with that. It’s about making the most of what you have. I’m different because I know that no-one else truly has the perspective on life that I have. Everyone is unique, so I don’t think we should categorize or compare ourselves to others even if we write about the same things.

It's important because it's what I've learned and what I can help other people to learn. It’s my passions and thoughts that other people can love, hate or agree with.

why do you write what you do?

My writing is part emotional release, and part sharing to try to make a difference. I constantly love to learn and share. If I could have been, I’d have been a teacher - but those plans are on hold for right now. I write what I do to process my thoughts and to grow and to help others to do so.

My goal in writing here is building an amazing and interactive community that encourages and inspires. I want it to be a place where people can find love and creativity in abundance.

how does your writing process work?

My writing process has been a bit obsessive of late. But I’ve been really trying to get on track and prepare for the madness that will be the birth and rearing of a newborn child. Lately this is how it's been going;

First of all I sit down and think of all the categories I post about on the blog. I make a mind map of those categories, and then brainstorm. Each post idea gets a separate branch and I include any brief outlines that I have for the post. I save that and then I write down a list of all the posts that I have to write from it.

I check my editorial calendar and see what I have planned for the upcoming week or month. Then I schedule in the post where there is space. 

I have a color code for the types of post so I can see at a glance what I'm posting about, so I  go ahead and add the correct color to it at the same time.

Once I have my list I start to make draft posts for the upcoming posts. When I create the drafts I add my signature and an edited picture with the title on it. I also pre-schedule it for the day it’s going to go up and add the tags that I want it to have.

For editing pictures I usually use Picmonkey since it's easy to use and free.  I get the pictures from an assortment of sites such as Pixabay, Picjumbo, Death to the Stock Photo, Unsplash & Kaboompics. 

I save the stock pictures to my USB stick in the relevant category (landscapes, people, technology etc). I do that to make it easy to find the right image when I want to add it to a post. 

For certain posts like Weekly Wishes I have a general template so I’ll copy & paste that in and a few bullet points that I can add to later.

When it comes to writing the content there are usually a few ways that I might write a post. 

Sometimes I hand write the basic points I want to speak about and then go ahead and complete the post in the Blogger post editing window. 

At other times ( like when I can't concentrate) I use an app like Ommwriter or Focus Writer which cuts out the distractions. I copy and paste the finished piece to the Blogger window afterwards.

... and then sometimes I just write. A lot of the posts I have about becoming a mom and pregnancy are a chain of thoughts that nagged at me until I wrote them down. Just a quiet room and the sound of keys clicking and feeling my baby move were enough to motivate me. Posts about faith are usually spur of the moment - I have to get this out of my head kind of posts too. 

I’m glad when the end result is a coherent post, when it started as a jumbled up mess of thoughts in my head. I hope when I write like that, that  someone else might read and think ‘Hey! I’m going through the exact same thing’ or that they can change their views on something. It’s a beautiful and freeing feeling.

Sometimes writing consists of  finding a quote that echoes in my head and relating it to something that I'm going through. Or it's me reading an article that I just can’t help but comment and put my spin on. Joining up moments and ideas and pictures and making them come to life.

Writing is freeing. It gives me life and hope and reason. That’s what my writing process is. Life.