Earlier this year, Kai shared how he comes up with new posts. Personally, coming up with new ideas for editorial posts is usually the hard part since it requires some effort to come up with topics and remembering them. Also, I will share what I use to write and edit posts.
Where do you come up with ideas for your editorials/essays?
Compared to episodic posts, editorial ones while interesting to write is a bit more involved because it requires one to come up with a topic to talk about. While I usually have what I want to write in my mind, there are some instances where I have writer’s block and can’t bring myself to write. When that happens, I spend my time doing other things such as surfing the Internet, studying Japanese or play video games to refresh my mind.
Regardless, there is many places where I get my ideas that include, but not limited to: Anime forums, personal experiences (Anime/Video Game/Japanese Self-Study related), other blogs or current events that are relevant. In addition, I also analyze themes from shows I watched that I find interesting. Some examples include the portrayal of foreigners in Hanayamata and popularity of Idol Anime.
After coming up these ideas, I usually keep my ideas of what topics I want to cover next in my mind or record it in a Onenote notebook. While some Anime bloggers tend to use drafts to keep track of what post he/she might want to write next, I don’t use them since I have a tendency to forget them. When I decide on a topic, I start writing it and look for look for evidence to support my argument such as examples (real life, personal or from Anime), other posts and resources (if needed). When I finish my first draft, I leave it alone for one day and then edit/proofread it the next day (this also applies to reviews).
What do you use to write your posts? How do you write/edit your posts?
Currently, my go to device when it comes to blogging is my Macbook Pro since it has a good keyboard and has a big screen. Generally, I don’t like writing posts in the WordPress editor since there is a good possibly of losing my work if I lose Internet connection. Sometimes, there may be instances where I want to write posts when I’m not online. Because of this, I typically write my posts in Word before pasting it into WordPress where I make final adjustments before publishing. People may prefer the visual editor in WordPress since it’s simple. For me, a word processor for me gives me a better peace of mind and flexibility.
While I have an iPhone and an iPad, I don’t find it very comfortable writing posts on a mobile device, especially on the former. First of all, the WordPress mobile app does not have a visual editor, which is a deal breaker since I use a lot of captions for pictures. Not only that, editing posts on these devices are just a pain in the butt since its troublesome use multitouch to select text compared to a mouse. I have published posts on my iPhone 4S during the power outage after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and it was a painful experience
While Pages is an okay replacement for Word on the iPad, it’s difficult to take screenshots and upload them to WordPress. This limitation eventually changed when I got a Surface Pro 2, which is a Ultrabook shoved in a tablet form factor. It enables me to write and publish posts like I would on a regular laptop and watch fansubs. Of course, it’s a clunky solution since I have to rely on the regular desktop, which is not optimized for touch. Even so, I was able to write quite a few posts just using the touch screen keyboard and even edit them before I return home or arrive at a hotel room and make the final touches.
As a whole, this is my writing style in a nutshell. If you are an Anime blogger, how do you come up with new ideas for posts? Do you read other blog posts, go on Anime forums or participate on social media to find new topics to write about? Feel free to share what devices/programs you personally use to write your posts.
“While some Anime bloggers tend to use drafts to keep track of what post he/she might want to write next…”
Guilty as charged. I tend do this a lot and still have many editorial pieces in my queue because of it, but more due to the fact that I can’t develop the ideas any further than forget. If it isn’t that, the obligations of daily life always throw me off for a couple of days and I lose the motivation. Every time I get close to finishing one, I don’t feel as if they are good enough and trash them. Same thing with reviews, yet more likely to finish those even though it takes like 3-4 days. Not sure if that is writers block more than never being satisfied, but I tend to just to stay away from other blogs and things like Twitter until get the job done or near complete. Other than that, I use my old laptop or the Desktop PC for posting (using the wordpress draft to write in) and if I happen to go on an trip with a post already prepared and edited, I use the mobile app to post it. As you say, it really isn’t fit to try and compose a post on.
I understand how you feel as I kind of feel the same way. During the early years of my Anime blogging career, I was able to easily come up with ideas. While there are some reviews I still have in my drafts, I was able to write and edit them in the same day. Now since I am in Grad School, all the classwork took away a good chunk of time away, which is why I am phasing out regular episodic posts for weekly digest posts. But yes, obligations are a factor (especially if one starts a family) I have to face when I begin working, but I think I will be able to balance everything.
But aside from that, I don’t write my posts ahead of time in most cases, but I tend to write if I have nothing else to do.
“Personally, coming up with new ideas for editorial posts is usually the hard part since it requires some effort to come up with topics and remembering them.”
I get new ideas all the freaking time, so much I don’t have enough time to write it all (and they pop up especially at night when I’m about to sleep!). Also, I’m terrible at remembering said ideas. What I do is write down the title and/or summary either in wordpress, in a pages document, a note-keeping program, or a plain old notebook. Doesn’t really matter where, as long as I document it before I forget. This way I can get back to it later when I have the time.
Maybe I don’t read much forum/blog posts nowadays, which is why I have a hard time coming up with ideas. But considering the situation you are in, you should probably consider using EverNote or Onenote if you have a smartphone so that you can record your ideas on the fly and when you get back to your computer, you can access them using those applications. I do have a notebook dedicated for ideas on what to write next if I don’t have any in mind, but I usually write what I have in mind first before referring to it.
Hey, thanks for linking to my post^^
I personally like writing editorials more than episodics/reviews because it’s more of an “open-topic”. It’s definitely more difficult to write though, and required research on some parts.
“Generally, I don’t like writing posts in the WordPress editor since there is a good possibly of losing my work if I lose Internet connection”
Doesn’t WP has an autosave function? There are a few times I closed my tabs by mistake, but when I opened back, I find out that it was already saved anyway. Unless your internet never return, lol.
“While I have an iPhone and an iPad, I don’t find it very comfortable writing posts on a mobile device, especially on the former. First of all, the WordPress mobile app does not have a visual editor, which is a deal breaker since I use a lot of captions for pictures.”
Yea, uploading pictures on a mobile device can be a pain. Precisely why I never do that though, I would rather save the uploading/editing pictures to be done at my desktop (most of the time, my desktop is where all my screenshots are saved.. and additionally, other pictures which I might want to use for my posts). I just use my phone to draft/develop the mountains of ideas I saved in my WP dashboard, lol.
I know that there is an autosave function, but I have gotten used to writing my posts in Word before moving it into WordPress since it has a better spell and grammar check (although I read over the post twice before publishing the final copy with all the images). But considering that Windows tablets are basically glorified netbooks or ultrabooks (with a more powerful processor) without a keyboard, I also uploaded pictures from there as mentioned, but I do agree that mobile is not suitable for that task. Not sure if a iPhone 6 Plus or other smartphones with bigger screens will fix that issue, but I don’t plan on upgrading until I have a job. If I do, just writing posts on a phone can be a possibility since I can see everything compared to my iPhone 4s, which only has a 3.5 inch screen. The small screen size is one of the reasons why I don’t use my smartphone to write posts.