Writing Blog Drafts on Paper

A few months ago, the Goulet Pen Company published an article about professional authors (bloggers, novelists, screenwriters) and why they still use fountain pens in the digital age. They found that writing on paper served them better in the creative process and how writing by hand continuously inspires them.

During the time that this article was released, I had just started gaining traction with the blog. I wanted to write more because I had so many ideas and I had an audience to share it with. Whenever I had an idea, I would just create a blog draft with a title and a few sentences. I’d publish a few posts every now and then but it came to a point where my blog drafts were just that – drafts. I was 30+ deep in unfinished blog drafts and couldn’t start anything.

When I read the article by Goulet Pens, I was inspired. I took out one of my old notebooks and started writing down all of my ideas and draft titles on a page and started to prioritize which ones I wanted to publish first. Because I wrote everything down, I was able to have a clearer picture of what I wanted to publish for 2 months.

• Read: Content Calendar in a Bullet Journal

Once I was able to find my groove, I started writing outlines and then I wrote paragraphs and pages worth of content. I was amazed with how I was able to create more content when I wrote by hand rather than on my computer.

Writing Drafts in my Bullet Journal Notebook

I used to keep my blog drafts separate from my bullet journal because I wanted my bullet journal to be focused on my tasks and standard bullet journal items. I was writing more drafts and kept going back and forth between my blog notebook and my bullet journal. Having separate notebooks also meant that I would have to bring both notebooks when I take my work outside the house. I realized how inefficient it was to use two separate notebooks so I decided to migrate the blog drafts in my bullet journal notebook.

Since I carry my bullet journal wherever I go or whenever I can, I’m now able to write down my blog ideas as soon as I can.

How Do I Keep it Organized?

I normally use black ink for my bullet journaling but for my drafts, I use different colored inks (thanks to my fountain pen ink obsession). Writing in a different color makes it easier for me to discern between bujo pages and blog drafts.

I haven’t been using weekly logs in my bullet journal since the year started so my notebook right now is looking more like a journal-slash-notebook rather than a planner. When I was a weekly log user, I was able to organize my pages by only writing down collections in between months.

• Read: Bujo Basics: Weekly Log
• Read: Bullet Journal Running List

Now that I’m doing more of a traditional bullet journal method (rapid logging and daily logs), I take it a page at a time so now my bujo looks like this….

I write my blog drafts in the next available page, just as you typically would with a collection.

Okay – so how do I navigate through my pages?

#1 Using a dedicated index

I use a dedicated index for my blog drafts because it helps me navigate easily through my notebook. After writing my blog drafts, I don’t rush to my laptop and type it. It usually takes me days or weeks depending on when I intend to publish a certain blog post. Writing my blog topics in my index has become effective because I save time flipping through pages looking for a certain topic.

#2 Threading

I use a technique called threading. Threading is when you link related pages or collections by writing down the page number of the related collection next to the current page number. With my blog drafts, I normally use threading when I have written something new on the same topic. Let’s say I have a written a draft on “Bullet Journal Threading” and it’s spread out on different pages of my notebook. I will “thread” these pages by writing down the page numbers as if I were linking them to each other.

Bonus: Digital Tools

I used to write down all of my blog ideas in a bullet journal collection page. Sometimes, writing is a great way to brainstorm but I use some digital tools to help me schedule and prioritize – particularly, Trello.

I’m glad that I was encouraged and inspired to put pen to paper when it comes to writing blog drafts. I think because of that, I’ve been publishing more regularly (almost every other day!). What about you? Do you write your ideas on a piece of paper before turning to your computer?