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Whether you’re a freelance blogger, brand writer or in-house content producer, one of your major responsibilities (and challenges) is to maintain an exciting, busy editorial calendar.<\/p>\n
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But sometimes, it ain’t that easy. (e.g. If you’re the anchor blogger for a lipstick company, you’ve written so many posts on lipstick that you hate lipstick now. The mere thought of lipstick makes your mind go black. Yes, it’s possible.)<\/p>\n
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I have one particular trick to share that will help you come up with new ideas for posts.<\/p>\n
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If you’re anything like me, you spend your first draft writing without abandon, even if it’s packed with run-on sentences, thick paragraphs and phantom words. After I’m done, I take a break and return to the first draft so I can edit edit edit. Much of the editing involves cutting things out.<\/p>\n
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And there’s the secret.<\/p>\n
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Don’t delete anything you cut out. Save that information on a separate sheet. Because even one sentence — the one that quite doesn’t fit with the rest of the article — can turn into a whole new article on its own… with its own supporting examples and cheesy puns.<\/p>\n
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Take this for example. The other day, I was writing a brief blog post about green tea and how you can repurpose the used leaves as eye masks. As a criminal parentheses abuser, my first draft was peppered with tangents that, unfortunately, the post was better off without. Such as: “Tea is excellent for sweltering East Coast mornings. Just steep two bags in a large pitcher the night before, add a dash of lemon and honey and store it in the fridge. You’ll thank yourself the next day when you’re in your damp PJs!” (Don’t ask.)<\/p>\n
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Clearly, that has no relevancy to the eye mask article. However, I had another great post to add onto the pipeline. I say it’s a win-win situation.<\/p>\n
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Do you use this method? If not, would you start?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"