When I first started blogging I didn’t really have a process in place.  I had ideas in my head and when I started writing the words spiraled and took on a life of their own.  This drove me crazy.  Not only was my mind undisciplined but my writing didn’t communicate my original intentions for the post. 

I needed a writing process.  But it had to be light-weight and flexible so I didn’t stifle the elusive creative juices.

Unscheduled inspiration:  The thing about inspiration is that you can’t schedule it.  You can’t control when you’ll get a good idea for a post or when the words will start stringing themselves together in your head.  I’ve learned to keep a notepad and pen close-by for such moments.

Some of my best writing comes to me when I’m doing the housework, particularly doing the laundry (for some strange reason).  I think this is the concept of “boredom” or “mundane activities sparking creativity” in play.

Backlog:  I set up a Trello board to track my ideas.

Outline:  For each post I started by defining the “trigger” for why I was writing the post.  Usually it’s an incident that’s cropped up or something I feel passionate about in the moment.  I note down the key points I want to communicate which helps me order my thoughts and give some structure to my writing.

Get writing:  I’m not a wordsmith and some of my posts make me cringe a little, but I think they’re getting better over time.  I used to get hung up on word count, chopping out words or whole sentences to keep my writing to an arbitrary 250 word maximum.  This was too restrictive – now a post is as long or as short as it wants to be.

Imagery:  I use my own photos in my blog.  Some are from my travels, others are spontaneous moments where I’ve grabbed the camera and just started clicking. Some of my best photos were taken on my trusty mobile phone before I got my DSLR camera.

Out the window… Sometimes though you just need to break the rules and just get on with the job at hand. My most honest and emotionally raw posts are the ones where I’ve skipped the outline and just starting writing. They’re also some of the posts that resonate the most for me.

What’s your process for your creative outlet?

Photo: Spider web in my garden on an Autumn morning. My writing process is no where near as intricate, but my words still spin their own little web.