Pre-writing challenge updates

Group of bloggers challenge themselves to create 2 weeks worth of blog posts, and getting them ready for publishing, on top of their normal posting schedule. Here are the updates for the challenge...

Pre-Writing Challenge

Group of blog writers has committed to the challenge of pre-writing two weeks worth of blog posts, and getting them ready to be published, on top of their normal writing/posting schedule. All this in the span of 1 month. - Carlos Velez

I've been toying with the idea of blog post buffer for a while. It all started with how to take a vacation from blogging and continued on my posterous with this post buffer -post, where I came up with the term blog post buffer.

Blog post buffer is a concept where blogger writes posts beforehand and schedules them to a post queue instead of publishing them as they are finished. This creates "a buffer of posts", which creates flexibility to blogging and makes taking breaks from blogging, like vacations, easier.

One day I read a post about pre-writing at Website In a Weekend, written by Carlos Velez (Pre-Writing, Part 1 and Part 2), which talked about similar concept; writing content beforehand.

In the comments section of pre-writing part 2 Carlos "challenged" me to with an "accountability agreement" that we both would write posts like this (creating two weeks worth of content beforehand), and follow-up on each other to see how it's going and motivated each other. With that, the idea sprang forth. I wrote my 2 weeks worth of blog posts -post.

Carlos took it a step further and the pre-writing challenge was born...

For further information about the challenge, check the Pre-Writing Challenge Main Page by Carlos Velez at Conscious Me.

Participants, Pre-Writing Challenge #1, 2010

Read author / participant bios, goals and updates from Pre-Writing Challenge Main Page.

Pre-Writing Challenge Updates

Carlos has been posting updates for the challenge, you can find them here:

Pre-Writing Challenge Update: Week 1

My challenge updates...

The challenge started on February 19th and ends on March 21st 2010.

I'm doing most of my writing on the weekends, as I planned, which is awesome - I have a lot more time on the weekdays to do other stuff, like marketing, commenting and product creation.

I have a lot more draft posts than I did before the challenge started. But best of all, those a legit drafts, with plenty of content and not just headlines like I used to do before.

Week 1

At the moment I'm publishing every other day, which makes the target for the challenge (two weeks worth of content) 7-8 posts. On the first weekend I got 5 articles going and finished two of them.

For the second week I worked on my content strategy, and decided to push for a full series of posts about SEO (search engine optimization). I have the content outline drafted, and it looks like I might end up with more than the 8 posts I originally planned, but we'll see.

Week 2

In addition to having 6 nearly done posts on drafts, I have 3 posts ready to be published at the moment, so I'm well on my way to the target of 8 posts I set myself.

Week 3

Week 3 has just started. During the week I'll be planning and outlining the content, and writing again on the next weekend.

Special video message from Darren Rowse

Check what Darren Rowse (of ProBlogger.net fame) had to say when Carlos' sent him a message about the pre-writing challenge...

Can't see the video? Watch it on photobucket: Darren Rowse's special message for all pre-writers out there.

Thoughts, Tips, etc

This style of writing (writing all the posts for the week on one go during the weekend) has boosted my productivity (writing one post creates idea for 2 more, etc.). I use a lot less time per post, but still produce better posts (in my own opinion at least).

And since I have the time on the week to do other things, if I don't have any other things, I can plan and write even more content, which is great.

Even that the challenge is not even half-way yet, I recommend everyone to try this: write several blog posts on one go. If you don't like it, that's OK, but at least try, because the results can be great.

Discussion

Have you written content on one go? Have you set yourself a blog post buffer?

Are you in the pre-writing challenge, or are you otherwise working on writing more content than usual, for a info product, maybe? How's it going for you?

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