The Blog Ahead challenge is hosted by Anna of Herding Cats & Burning Soup (on her companion website, The Herd Presents.) Over the entire month of October, the goal is to increase your “cushion” of blog posts by 30. That’s in addition to whatever posts you create for October itself; at the end of the month, you should have 30 scheduled-but-not-yet-live posts.
It’s true that some of my regular posts can’t be prepared that far in advance, like the weekly Sunday Post and News & Notes and the occasional WIP Wednesday. On the other hand, book reviews, discussion topics, and Top Ten Tuesday posts can be written well ahead of time. And I have found that book reviews of older books are particularly useful for creating a cushion of posts that I can pull out when life gets hectic… which it invariably does.
I’ll be honest: I’ve never managed to get 30 posts ahead, and I’ve participated in the challenge several times. But even having a few posts ready to go whenever, or scheduled for upcoming weeks, gives me a sense of breathing room. So whether I make it to 30 posts or not, I think it’s worth trying. Three posts, five posts, or ten posts ahead is still an improvement over where I am now!
Check out Anna’s sign-up post and see if Blog Ahead is something you’d like to try for yourself. See you there!
My Progress (as of 10/09):
- Review posts: 2
- Top Ten Tuesday posts: 0
- Discussion posts: 0
- Other posts: 0
TOTAL POSTS COMPLETED (for November and beyond): 2
Lark
30 posts ahead? Wow. That’s an out-of-reach goal for me. I like to have at least 3 posts ahead, with an idea of what the next one or two posts after that will be, but 30? Who can plan that far in advance? Not me. ;D
Lark_Bookwyrm
It’s a lot, I agree. But I am so far behind on review-writing, I certainly have plenty of reviews I could write! One thing I like to do with Blog Ahead is make a cushion of posts that aren’t time-sensitive: reviews of older books, discussion posts, and so on… stuff I can pull out of the “pile” of finished posts when life goes haywire and I don’t have time to write and schedule my regular posts.
Northwoman
Well, it’s a great idea. I am always trying to read or listen and get ahead. It never seems to work out well. Either I have to wait for the eARC from the publicity team or author, so I am reading just a week or two in advance or I’m so busy I just get my posts on time. I do 3 reviews a week + a Sunday post. I also have a bunch of other specialty posts. I guess I do have my ICYMI done thru December and I could work on 2019 ones. My series on Saturday posts could be done in advance also. I already formatted my Top Ten of 2018 posts for the last week of December. I could do my ending of challenges posts too. So I might get 5 or 10 I guess. Anne – Books of My Heart
Lark_Bookwyrm
I haven’t figured out how to do Sunday posts ahead of time. I do use a template, but I have no idea what I will have read or done three weeks or six weeks from now, so I just do them by the week. Top Ten Tuesday posts are good to do ahead, though, and one thing I’ve found works really well is reviews of older books, because they aren’t time sensitive. Anyway, I’m glad you’re going to give it a try, and I wish you luck!
Nicole
Um. I have 27 posts scheduled currently for now through the beginning of 2019. I also have a bunch of drafts that aren’t that far away from being finished. For me, it helps that most of my Friday Reads posts can be scheduled out as far in advance as I like, and the Top Ten Tuesday prompts are scheduled in advance as well.
Nicole recently posted…101 in 1001 ~ update the twenty-seventh
Lark_Bookwyrm
Wow, you are in great shape! I’m hoping to prep some of the TTT posts ahead. I use a template for WIP Wednesday, News & Notes, and Sunday Post, but they are all too time-sensitive to do much of the actual post ahead of time, darn it.
Angela
Wow, 30 posts! That is a great goal. I like to have about 15 scheduled posts at any time, but it can be hard!
Lark_Bookwyrm
Yes, it can. And there’s probably no way I can reach that goal, but even if I only get partway there, I’m better off than when I started.