Not long ago, I presented to you the concept of a writing pipeline. The stages are:
Research
Ideas
Drafts
Final Edits
Shipped
Archive (or Portfolio)
A project enters the pipeline when it’s an idea, germinating and growing in the idea folder. It’s a more formal project when it hits the draft stage.
Each stage of development takes time, and you’ll see your writing life take off when you identify and schedule each stage.
Use an editorial calendar, and you'll line up your projects—and each stage of each project—churning out content more reliably, meeting deadlines and reaching goals.
How Long Will It Take?
When you first begin using an editorial calendar, however, it can be hard to know when to work on the various stages of a given project. It’s difficult to map it out when you don’t know how long things take and you’re not sure what you need to do in each stage.
To figure it out, reverse engineer the process.
Start with the end and work your way back.
Case Study: Blog Post
Let’s say I want to publish a blog post at my website on January 19. And I’m going to write about finding creative writing spaces to do our work. Or maybe it’ll be about creatively finding writing spaces. Either way. that’s what I’ll use as my working title: “Creative Writing Spaces."
Start at the End
The first step will be to write down the working title—“Creative Writing Spaces”—and the end date, or pub date: January 19.
On the downloadable sheet, I include a space for notes, as well, in case you want to record an extra thought for later.
The Questions
While moving through the Project Planning Worksheet, I’ll ask:
“What’s the stage before this?”
“What needs to happen so it’s ready for this stage?”
“How long will that take?”
The answers to these three questions will point you to the next stage and deadline.
Discover the Stage Before Published
In this case, I’ll start the questioning. I’ll ask:
What’s the stage before this?
The answer? “Creative Writing Spaces” needs to be prepped in WordPress.
What needs to happen so it’s ready for this stage?
I’ll need the text and have to add some code and a photo. Add some tags.
How long will it take?
About an hour. And let’s say I’ll prep it the day before.
I'll write on my worksheet—or I could write it directly on my editorial calendar and skip the worksheet—Prepped: January 18.
Under "Notes," I could write down one hour or remind myself to refer to a blog post workflow. Anything to help me easily follow through.
What's the Stage Before Prepped?
As I continue working through my Project Planning Worksheet I ask:
What’s the stage before this?
This article needs to have been edited and proofread and in its final version before it can be prepped.
What needs to happen so it’s ready for this stage?
I need to have written the draft and allowed some time to edit and proofread.
How long will that take?
Let’s say I like to leave at least a day between the finished draft and final edits. That puts the work at January 16.
I write on my worksheet—or directly on my editorial calendar—the finished article needs to be edited and proofread: January 16
What's the Stage Before Edited and Proofread?
What’s the stage before this?
That became clear in my last answer: I need to have written it.
What needs to happen so it’s ready for this stage?
I need to find time to write this article and do the work. I need to write.
How long will that take?
Even though I’m fairly efficient if I sit down and write nonstop, life doesn’t give me very many chunks of writing time. So let’s say I look at my calendar and, given my appointments and other tasks, I make a guess it'll take me a full week to write the article—writing in little bursts during slivers of open time. I count back seven days and arrive at January 9.
I write that down. Start writing draft: January 9.
What's the Stage Before Draft?
What’s the stage before this?
