A Daily Writing Process

I’ve been writing and posting online more or less consistently for the last nine months. I’m not setting the world on fire, but I have managed to get a lot out there. I often follow a process of coming up with some ideas in the morning and writing a version of a post in the morning, then coming back and finishing and publishing it in the evening.

The morning is the time for creativity and raw output. That's when it's easiest to come up with ideas. Generate ideas, get something down. It doesn't have to be fully formed, but it should at least be something you can later work with and develop into something substantial.

The evening is when you can take a second look, polish, and publish. You’ve had a chance to think about the ideas throughout the day and let them bounce around a bit. Now you can take another shot at expressing them. And you get a fresh look at your writing, so you can spot problems and do some good editing.

This might not be the best way, but it seems somewhat non-obvious and it works reasonably well. It allows you to publish something without it being too much of a strain.