How do I blog? A peek behind the scenes

A reader left this comment recently:

I'd like to read more about the routine you have to write the blog. How do you do it? I mean, do you keep notes? How do you have your writing space set up? Etc. It amazes me how consistent you are.

You know, my "routine" for blog writing has never felt exactly like a routine.

I have been doing this for 18 years now, and in that time, my life has looked a lot of different ways! I had four little kids when I started, and I blogged all through their childhoods and teen years, and then through my divorce and nursing school, so my blogging routine has been pretty varied.

My variable routines

I suppose one consistent thing is that my blogging has usually had to fit in the cracks of my life, which is one reason that I have never managed much of a routine.

For... reasons, when I was married, I generally did not ever blog in the evenings or on weekends, so I had to squeeze it in wherever else I could.

For instance, when I first started blogging, I know I wrote posts during Zoe's nap time. Ha. Sometimes, when I was going to bed and getting up crazy early to match a certain someone's work schedule, I would write posts in the early morning hours, after he left for work.

When the schedule was flipped to a later time, I wrote posts at night, after the kids went to bed, while I waited up for him to come home.

In the years when my younger two went to a tutorial one day a week, I did my best to batch-write some posts.

During nursing school, I worked blogging in wherever it fit, in the random empty slots between nursing classes, labs, clinicals, and exams.

In the last year of working full-time, I've had to batch-write posts on my days off and then schedule them to publish.

For instance, if I work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I try to have those three posts done and scheduled, along with Thursday's post (because after a string of shifts, I don't usually feel like getting up early and writing!)

In that sense, it is actually much easier to work weekend shifts because those require less post-prepping.

At any rate, blogging's flexible nature is actually what has allowed me to keep it going through all of these life stages.

How I get ideas

This too has basically zero routine.

(As I always say, I kinda blog by the seat of my pants!)

Since I have been doing this for so long, my brain is well-accustomed to thinking in blogging terms. So, some ideas are usually percolating in my brain.

I don't keep a notebook, but I do sometimes start a quick draft in WordPress when I have an idea, even if it's just a title. Sometimes, I email a little idea to myself if I'm away from home when an idea occurs to me.

I get ideas from my own brain, from news happenings, from reader questions, from things I see on social media, and of course, sometimes I'm just writing about things I'm up to (like cooking or deal-finding).

Three post themes, two free-form posts

One thing that helps is having some themes: on Tuesdays, I do Five Frugal Things. Thursdays are always a thankful list, and Fridays are always What I Spent, What We Ate.

Those posts still require time and effort, of course, but I'm not starting from scratch with ideas.

Then on Mondays and Wednesdays, I have no pattern; those posts are probably the most time-consuming to do because I am starting with a blank slate.

I have a low-prep style

Some people have a fairly elaborate writing process, but I do not.

I have a vague idea of what I want to write about before I sit down, but I never prepare some kind of outline or main points. I just sit down and go.

I know this is not how they teach writing in English classes, but it is what works for me. And given that it has worked for me for almost two decades, I have decided to dismiss any "I really should be doing it the right way" thoughts. 😉

I take pictures as I live life

I happen to be a person who likes taking pictures, so this part of blogging prep is easy for me! I tend to photograph my life without thinking too hard about it, so I generally have enough pictures to illustrate what I'm writing about.

Plus, after this many years of blogging, I have a pretty extensive media library on my site, and I can usually find what I need there.

How I stay consistent

Mainly, I do this by always working ahead a little bit. I mean, obviously I sometimes still miss days here and there, but having a little bit of margin usually keeps me on track.

(Many years ago, when I missed a day of blogging, a reader said, "Why don't you prep posts ahead of time?" and I laughed because she probably hadn't realized that working ahead was how I'd already produced so many blog posts!)

In an ideal world, I would have many completed posts in my Drafts folder, ready to go. But I have never attained that ideal, and I have made some kind of peace with the reality that I probably never will!*

Also helpful: I keep things pretty simple, especially right now. There are endless platforms to create content on, but I stick to my blog. I barely post on Instagram, I haven't made a YouTube video in eons, I don't have a podcast, and so on. I write blog posts and I do it consistently; that's about it!

Another thing that helps: I like writing. Putting words and pictures together is still fun for me, even after all these years. It's easier to stay consistent when you like the work.

*I do have a fat backlog of Patreon posts, because I've had a lot to process, and writing helps me with the processing. Ideas for those frequently come to me when I'm walking in the woods, and I just use my phone to jot down the topic.

My writing set-up

It is super basic! I have a very old desktop Windows computer in my home office (a bedroom that I use as an office), and that's where I write almost all of my blog posts.

I had a desk in the basement office at my old house too, but when work-from-home became a thing during Covid, I ended up on the living room couch with my laptop (because his desk was in the home office too).

When Lisey moved out, the work-from-home situation was still going on, so I moved my desk out of the basement office and into her empty room, and I was thrilled to have my own little space again (although of course I missed Lisey!)

In both 2018 and 2022, I had several-month stints of maintaining my blog via laptop on the couch at my parents' house during my marital separations.

And of course, I already showed you my current-day office space.

Luckily, blogging doesn't require a fancy setup, so I have been able to make it work no matter what physical space I am in.

I do love, love, love having a dedicated office space, though! The set-up in my current house is by far my favorite. 🙂

Any other blogging questions? Also, I know we have some bloggers who hang out here, so I'd love to hear about your writing processes, if you want to share. 🙂