My Blog
I've developed a new system to feed me ideas for blog posts and I thought I'd share it with you. It's based on using facebook posts as building blocks.
It kind of happened naturally. I started with noticing when I wrote something on facebook, whether a status update or comment, that I thought hit the mark for me, said something well, or that I was proud of. I would write in the little comment or post field, but before I hit "share", I would highlight and drag the whole comment onto my desk top, thinking I'd think about whether it might make or be the seeds of a good blog idea.
After a little while, I realized I had a stack of these little text box files on my desktop and I could barely remember what the Hell was in there. So I started to read them and after reading several, I realized that these comments were falling into some general categories like Politics, Music, Humorous, as well as some more specific ones as well.
So I went to the part of my computer where I keep a word doc. of whatever I post on my blog. I have the blog itself as well as a folder of the pictures I've used for each post. I started a new folder called "Blog Ideas" and then within that folder I started individual folders with these categories as headers.
So for instance, I now have a folder called "Music" and whenever I post something I like on facebook that's related to songwriting, the nature of songs, or music, or my relationship with music, I grab that post and drop in onto my desk top. It's super easy and fast and just takes a second. Later on, I go back and drop it into the Blog Idea>Music folder.
This blog, as you know, is really not a public diary type blog. It's essentially composed of articles expressing my opinions and experiences on various aspects of my life. I now have about 15 folders with sorted out posts about just that. When I feel like I want to post something, but am not sure what, I just look at these folders, and see if any of the ideas catches my eye. If one does, I can open it and find several comments that I've already thought through and written on this subject. I find it a nice way to not lose things that I've put some time and energy into, and that I like. I also use it to focus and organize what looks at first like a bunch of disparate random comments but which do in fact, when sorted out, reveal part of my developing ideas on different subjects.
So far, I'm likin' it!
Gene, you've found a good way to organize your ideas for blog posts.
ReplyDeleteI use a combination of a digital voice recorder and Word documents to organize all my ideas, including those for blog posts.
Thanks John. The thing I like about this method is that it captures my responses to various subjects on facebook that I don't generate myself. I read something there and have a response, which I then try to articulate with my comment. Since I care about thoughts and words being well matched, I usually put a little time into my response and come up with something I like and feel like sharing with the "world". Now, I don't have to lose those thoughts. I still use word doc.s to keep track of ideas that I generate totally on my own, but this method captures ideas that are responses to other people's ideas as well. And it's so easy. I can focus totally on the writing at hand, in the little comment field and then when I'm done, if I like it, before I hit "share", (or just after), I can just drag it off and keep it with similar comments for later consideration.
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes seeing my short comments on a given subject put together in one place gives me an idea for a blog post, or even a song, that wouldn't have occurred to me otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good idea, Gene. Facebook as a jotting notebook, then save them. Like it.
ReplyDelete