Over four years ago I wrote a post about my off-the-cuff writing style. It was a flash-bang approach with only minor edits along the way. However, since writing stories for NaNoWriMo last year I’ve been rethinking my broader aims for this blog, and what processes can help me achieve them. Writing a post each week is a fine goal, but if they aren’t each in service of something larger it’s hard for them be anything but a pleasant chore. Subconsciously, that far-away target was establishing a writing routine with the hope it would improve my abilities. I think it has, but it took a concerted effort in editing a short story (and a few other projects before) for me to recognize that growth. It’s time for a change in approach and a new target.
While the goal is still to improve my writing through repetition, I need to be more conscientious about creating a feedback loop, both while writing a post and looking at old ones. I’ve concerned myself mainly with a new process for writing each post; I’ll consider looking back in the future.
I used to start writing a post in any number of places, most commonly directly with my WordPress account in an app or in the web interface for my blog. While this does provide the most compatibility (for example, any plug-ins I have would only be viewable there), it doesn’t work offline and provides no clean method of backup. Other times I would jot down notes in any number of apps, which were backed up to Dropbox and could be found later, but rarely were. So, the first step was to establish where canonical drafts lived.
I standardized on a file structure I’d set up years ago but never maintained. Every new post is a Markdown file in a particular folder in Dropbox.1 The file name starts with the date I plan to post it, followed by a descriptive working title of the idea. For example, the original file for this post is named “01-25_Writing Workflow”.2
This file is created in a Markdown-specific editor wherever is convenient—Typora on macOS or Linux, or iA Writer on iPad. Any initial notes get put in this document, then drafts typically evolve around those notes. I rearrange the structure of the post, adding comments for possible additions.
Once I believe I’m at a point where serious editing (or, in a pinch, publishing) can occur, I move over to my iPad and use Ulysses.
The iPad kicks my brain into a new mode, and I treat Ulysses as the app for final production. An iPad is more focused, closer to a piece of paper; it puts me in an editing mood. Then, Ulysses has the tools for exporting in multiple useful formats. I’ll do a quick pass in the Markdown to make sure everything looks okay, and export to a PDF template meant for paper markup and use Notability to add comments. Once I have my notes, there’s also flexibility in the final process depending on my current setup. Either I can have Notability open full screen and perform the edits on my computer, or go split-screen with Ulysses.
A consistent goal is to have everything written before Sunday, or at least very early on Sunday. That way I can use Ulysses to export to my blog, add any WordPress-specific features3 based on notes I left for myself, and preview it on my site. I’ll read through it a few more times before scheduling it for Monday morning.
It feels good to have a process. While the goal of writing a weekly blog has been helpful, a systematic approach gets me more involved. It adds friction in a good way, reducing the chance I want to throw in the towel for a week as my mind is more engaged and bought into each post.
I also like that there can be flexibility. There are times I only have an iPad easily available, or perhaps I just want to walk somewhere to write. By letting Ulysses be a singular tool, rather than the catch-all I wanted it to be when I first tried it, I’m still able to adjust my mindset on a per-app basis. Or, in the unlikely situation that my iPad is not available, I can still export to PDF using my other editors and reasonably bypass Ulysses.
My goal in following this new process each week is not to achieve the vague notion of improvement in my writing. Consistent editing allows me to establish a style I enjoy. To that end, I’m also planning on slowly building up a style guide for my blog. I need to do some research into how to approach that project, but having a specific reference to use after letting my thoughts flow in the writing process should further my efforts to achieve consistency and quality.
FOOTNOTES
- The two folders for this year are named “Spring 2021” and “Fall 2021”. This is a holdout from how I named notes for each semester in college. Since I only write about four posts per month, this makes as much sense to me as anything. ↩
- No need for the year because of the above folder structure. The mixing of an underscore with spaces bugs me, but I’ve tried to grow up and accept that, for general use in modern operating systems, spaces in file and folder names are nothing to sneeze at. ↩
- Nearly every post more than three paragraphs gets a “Read More” tag, so the full post won’t display on the homepage of the website. There may be a few formatting details that don’t transfer as well.