Sit Down And Give Me Five

by Randy Murray on September 18, 2014

Yes, it’s hard to keep up with a publishing schedule. Five days a week, week after week. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing on this site for over five years.

Five fresh articles every freak’n week. And each one of the a new thought.

So hard.

So stop whining about it and just do it already. Sit down and give me five. Five fresh posts to publish on your site. Not for this week. You’ll need to rewrite them, have someone else edit them, then review, revise, and get approved for publication. That will take time.

OK, I know that it’s not that easy for most people. I’ve been doing this for years. If you call me at 8 A.M. and tell me that you need five fresh five hundred word articles on the following list of topics by noon it doesn’t faze me, but it scares the hell out of most people. It’s not because I’m particularly brave or wear a cape (the cape is just a personal style choice). It’s because it’s my profession.

But it’s possible for others to learn these skills. Here’s the secret to being able to do this for yourself:

Don’t sit down to a totally blank page. Start with pages of topics and details.

The key to being able to quickly and easily write articles is to have a list of topics, an editorial schedule, and if possible, most of the details, facts, and key points for your articles before you sit down to write. Writing from nothing is damn difficult, even for me. But when I have a clear topic and lots of details to work from it can become fast and easy work.

I challenge writers all of the time, but I’m careful to give them clear writing assignments. Make it easier on yourself by refusing to work from a blank page. Build your editorial calendar. Collect the details. And never, never, put yourself in the position of saying, “I need something new on the site today—what should I write about?”

Unless you’re writing news, do the work in advance. It’s so much easier.

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