Editorial calendars aren’t just for magazines. Increasingly, smart authors and bloggers are discovering the organizational advantages to mapping out a plan through the uncharted territory of their blogs.
An editorial calendar can help fend off writers block, let you organize topics, and assist you in preparing articles in advance and scheduling them so you can take a break here and there. And, having an advance plan takes the stress out of sitting at your keyboard the night before you’re meant to post, thinking, “What should I blog about?”
This also creates structure. Laying out all the topics on paper lets you sort them into buckets of information. In example, an author writing a diet book might have exercise tips one day a week, recipes on another, nutrition on another. A fiction author might talk about scenes left on the cutting room floor once a month, examine a character another day, and share insights into their writing or publishing process another day.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Explore the Landscape: Ask yourself each of the following questions –
- Who will read these posts?
- Who will write these posts (you vs. guest bloggers)?
- What are your goals while producing this content?
2. Map the area: With a firmer goal in mind, you can begin building your own spreadsheet (we’ve seen them in Excel and in Google docs — you can search “Editorial Calendar” images and see a treasure trove of great examples! Calendars can be anything you want them to be, but here items typically included –
- Due Date/Publish Date
- Headline
- Author
- Keywords being targeted
- Audience being targeted
- Status: Published, Drafts, Scheduled
- Links to inspiration or research that will help you write the article
- Related Videos, Photos (links to them or files where to find them)
You can also include success metrics – goals vs. realized, notes, etc.
3. Editorial “GPS” – Once you build your spreadsheet, with all the items you want to address, there’s a great Editorial Calendar plugin you can grab right in WordPress. This plugin offers a simpler, clean editorial calendar of your posts, both past and present. You can drag and drop articles from one date to another, edit them and much more. It’s a nice visual of what you have scheduled, drafted, and how far ahead, and opens right from your posts menu, as shown below. But we suggest doing the work of Step #2 first as it’s really more comprehensive — this is more to keep you organized within your platform.
4. Alternate Routes: Finally, be flexible. Think on your editorial calendar as a living, breathing animal; it needs the ability to adapt to its environment. Current events sometimes inspire commentary, which can push less time-sensitive planned content to the following month. Inspiration can strike on a topic of sudden interest. You certainly don’t want to stifle that creativity because you’ve already scheduled article X to run on day Y. Rather, let your editorial calendar be a guide to expanding your own content effectiveness.
Do you have an editorial calendar? How many months in advance do you plan and how extensive is your plan?
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COMING THIS WEEK – October 19-21, 2012
SCWW WRITERS CONFERENCE
Myrtle Beach, SC
The South Carolina Writers Workshop (SCWW) annual writer’s conference brings over 200 authors, agents, editors and writers together for a weekend of workshops, agent and editor critiques and special events. WWW’s Shari Stauch will present classes on Saturday and Sunday’s faculty program, including PUTTING YOUR PASSION IN PRINT: HOW TO SHARE YOUR VISION & INFLUENCE WITH A GREATER AUDIENCE and HOW TO BECOME AN OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESSFUL AUTHOR, EVEN BEFORE YOUR BOOK IS PUBLISHED!
Members of the WWW team will be at several events still coming up this year. Learn more HERE!
This is a good article for all bloggers to use editorial calendar for managing their contents effectievly.
Did you get a chance to check the website http://www.ezedcal.com to manage editorial calendar easily for your blog and show your editorial calendar in your blog easily (optional)
Thanks & Regards
~Jo
Interesting but demo page not functional and so couldn’t view more about it…
Hi,
The demo page is working correctly now. This page has the error because of the new functionality (action icons on the editorial calendar) we added to this tool. Now you can see the Editorial Calendar in action in the demo page http://ezedcal.com/en/demo.
If you need any further details please let me know.
Thanks
Joseph
Wonderful, will check it out and maybe we can blog on it!
WOW. Thanks for your interest.
If you need any further details please contact me at [email protected]
Thanks
Jo
Many thanks for a very informative post! Lately I’ve been in a quandary about how to better organize and manage my time among several hats I wear in addition to my writing hat. This calendar concept appears very workable for almost of all the time I need to be concerned about in each of those areas where I don a different hat. Of course, I could also just write and do nothing else! 🙂 Really appreciate the work you do for writers.
Thanks Sherry! I’m in fact updating ours now after reading our own advice, lol… It does help to step back once in awhile, evaluate, and plan… Write on!
I have only been following Where Writers Win for a short time but I recommend it highly. I have learned many things about writing but what I have found the most valuable is my time is valuable and I don’t have to work all the time. When I do work, however, I make good use of it because I know more. Thank you.
Thanks, Debbie – you’ve made our day!
Thanks! Great ideas here! I’m especially interested in talking about the novels the author has written and what went into the writing. Having written five novels [1 trilogy and 2/3rds of another trilogy] I have lots to talk about.
Fantastic Mary – sounds like you have plenty to talk about, and I know folks would like to hear why you decided on a trilogy and how that plays into your planning process… Write on!
I would like to thank you so very much for sharing this information! My system of organization has taken a nose dive this past year. This article is so informative and I am gearing up with excitement to finally have some clarity to when and how often I write. This is a blessing because I have the tools from you that I needed. You have inspired two articles out of me. I would like to write them exclusively for you!
I will make sure to add this return gift on my finished calendar of organization! Thanks again. 🙂
Thanks Joanne and would love to see those articles! Write on…