Blaugust Halfway Check: Creating a Blogging Buffer
Posted on August 15, 2024 by Aywren
I consider August 15 the halfway point of Blaugust – so congratulations if you’ve made it this far! Keep going!
I’m going to talk about something practical today – it sounds simple, but it’s often more difficult to do than it seems. That is creating a blogging buffer for a big writing project such as Blaugust.
When I mean “buffer,” I’m simply referring to having a number of pre-written posts saved and ready to go before the day you’re going to publish them. For example, I’m currently writing this post on August 11. I just got done writing the August 14 post today, as well.
Why? Because I currently have the time to spend jotting out rough drafts of posts today.
I didn’t have time to write anything yesterday, and that’s okay because I already had a buffer of a few days to pull from. I just grabbed a pre-written post yesterday, put it on my site, and didn’t have to fret about making time to write it.
Often, a buffer post is something I write on the fly and worry about editing later. These are usually easy to write posts that don’t require a ton of photos or research. They can fit in anywhere in the Blaugust timeline – well, except for this one, because I’ve written it specifically for August 15.
Having completed 5 years of Blaugust at the rainbow badge level, my advice to anyone attempting to craft 31 or more posts in a month is to:
- Create a list of blogging topics way before Blaugust
- Begin to establish a pool of buffer posts from that list
- Have a couple of posts (or more) ready to go when Blaugust begins
Start with a buffer already on hand.
This allows for more flexibly throughout the month, instead of stressing that it’s 9PM and you haven’t written your post for the day yet. That’s the kind of pressure that makes a challenge like this more stressful than fun.
Maybe you have more time on the weekends to write? Try to double up posts on those days.
Or maybe, like me, weekends are often time off from writing because you have a lot of other things to do. If so, try to double up a couple times on the weekdays.
Again, just focus on getting out a rough draft of something, knowing you’ll come back to it to edit later. The most important thing is having a foundation of a post waiting for you each day before you need it!
It’s the same idea as pre-prepared meal planning. Just for your blog instead!
Keep writing bloggers and best of luck for the last half of this month!