Write Your First 3 Posts

Now it’s time to put our butts in the chair and do the real work of blogging.

90% of the work of building a blog that matters is in the writing. There’s this old writing advice that says…

“Writing is simple: apply ass to chair and make the keys move.”

Now the good news for you is: you’ve already written a lot!

• You came up with smart content ideas.
• You created an initial content strategy.
• You chose the first three posts to write.
• You massaged and shaped the headlines.
• And, you developed the basic article content.

This is all included in the writing process, and you’ve completed all of these already.

So what’s left to do is simply to sit and write out the rough drafts.

There’s this big myth about the creative process that applies to writers, artists and creatives of all kinds. We tend to romanticize the creative process. We talk about “the muse” and being “struck by inspiration.” We imagine creativity as something we wait for, like a surfer watching for the next big set to roll through.

But real writing doesn’t work like that. If you sit around and wait for creativity to grace you with its presence, you won’t produce consistently enough to feed your blog the vital words it needs to thrive.

So, instead, we’re simply going to focus on the practice of writing. Take off all that pressure to hit a homerun. Your goal right now is simply to have a lot of at-bats. Do you know what that means? In baseball, it’s simply being a batter, stepping up to the plate, and taking some swings. Because this is the heartbeat of blogging: showing up and consistently producing useful stuff for your audience.

And the crazy thing is, if you have a practice, if you’re making useful stuff consistently, at some point the stars align and you hit a homerun. It blows up, goes viral, you’ve made a truly epic post.

These epic posts are like the homeruns of blogging, and just like a home run, they’re rare, exciting and important. They can catapult your blog and business into a whole new level… and over time with practice you will learn how to hit them more often.

But right now, your goal is to take lots of swings, and you only get to swing the bat when you sit down and force yourself to write consistently. Because your home runs, your epic posts, those will happen when you commit to the practice of writing.

I mean, think about it, after you write an epic post, or a viral post, your job isn’t done. You still have to show up the next week and… write another post.

So, no, a blogger doesn’t wait for inspiration; she can’t afford to sit around and wait for it. A blogger applies ass to chair, and makes useful stuff on a steady schedule. And that’s exactly what the next step is for you 🙂

Your task in this lesson is simple: you’re going to write your first three blog posts. You may be chomping at the bit, ready to get right into it! Or you may be absolutely terrified. Either way, now is the time to apply ass to chair and make the computer keys go clickety clack.

If you don’t have much experience writing for a public audience, don’t worry. This isn’t your masterpiece, this is just the start of your practice. You can think of this task as writing what Anne Lamott calls “shitty first drafts.”

“[Perfectionism] will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.” ~Anne Lamott

If you need more help developing the content of your posts, you can go back to the last lesson and spend some more time there. But if you’re ready, now is the time to clickity clack these first drafts out.