Ep 131: Reverse Engineer Your Editorial Calendar

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?

Thinking, planning, outlining, researching.

What needs to happen so it’s ready for this stage?

I need to think, plan, research, and outline the topic.

How long will that take?

I’ll make an educated guess as to how long it’ll take me to think through and outline my piece—and how much research I’ll have to do. That’ll change from project to project. Also, research might happen in the initial thinking time and again as I’m planning and outlining the piece.

So let’s say it takes five days of thinking, researching, reading, taking notes, drawing a mind map, all of that. I count back five days and write: Think, plan, research, and outline “Creative Writing Spaces”: January 4, marking the time I need to begin that stage.

What’s the Stage Before Think, Plan, Research, and Outline?

What’s the stage before this?

If I didn’t know what I was writing, I’d have to build in an idea generation stage.

What needs to happen so it’s ready for this stage?

I’d need to think and brainstorm, deciding if I want to create a series or if I want to take a holiday into account. I need an idea so I know what I’m planning, researching, outlining, and eventually writing.

How long will that take?

I may need a few hours or even a day to generate ideas and choose one. I’ll allow a day and write in on my planning sheet: Idea generation – January 3.

The Plan

Now I know when to start working on my article, and all the steps in-between.

The worksheet gives me a place to add stages if a project will require something unusual, like interviews.

When I’ve determined the stages and time frames, I flip them—because they’re in reverse order—and transfer all those key dates to my editorial calendar.

The due dates alone increase accountability as I move through the stages of developing and completing a writing project. But I’ve found that I increase accountability and follow through by adding focused writing times related to each stage onto my personal calendar. It’s not necessary, but it’s extremely useful while develop a writing habit.

Reverse Engineer Your Editorial Calendar to Reveal a Realistic Plan

By reverse engineering the steps and estimating the time it will take to produce a project from beginning to end, you’ll form a realistic plan. To figure it out, start at the end and worked your way back, asking what’s needed to arrive at each stage.

For a while, use a worksheet of some kind for each project. If you keep the details in a notebook or Trello or Evernote or wherever you track information, jot down the actual time it took—that way you get a better understanding of your pace.

Over time, you can adjust the time frames because you’ll gain a more accurate understanding of how long it takes you to, for example, research a topic for an article or brainstorm ideas for book chapters.

Eventually you may not need those planning sheets, because you’ll figure out how long each type or writing takes.

When you organize yourself stage by stage, you’ll impress others by meeting your deadlines and generating content at a pace that outdoes other writers who haven’t taken this step.

Get it all on your editorial calendar because it’ll carry you through day by day, week by week, nudging and prodding you to make progress and meet your goals.

• Ep 114: Make the Most of Your Time with a Writing Pipeline
• Ep 115: You’ll Write More When You Use an Editorial Calendar
• Ep 30: Action Creates Clarity
• Ep 112: My Best Writing Tools to Get More Done (at Home and on the Go)
• Ep 50: Stop Waiting for Last-Minute Inspiration (challenge to write 50 headlines, or ideas)
• Ep 51: Make the Most of Your 50 Headlines
• Ep 93: Why I’m Committing to the Work-Ahead Advantage
• All podcast episodes

 

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