Web Zero to Web Hero in 1 Weekend

(Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes)

Carlos Velez writes thought-provoking articles illustrating his personal application of self-development principles on his blog Conscious Me. His writing process provides lessons for any writer, especially writers just starting out and those stepping up to the next level. In this first part of a two-article series, Carlos shares how he sets up his writing and publishing process.

Pre-Writing Is Your Friend – With Benefits (Part 1)

-by Carlos Velez

My first blog entry sucked.

So did my second one.

I won’t get into the third one. Thankfully, I hadn’t gotten ahead of myself. I started writing drafts of posts before I even decided what to name my blog, and it’s the single best thing I’ve done so far to improve the quality of my content.

My Rule of 3: Trash ‘em

The first 3 seconds of water backwash flowing out of the shower head are a terrible time to get in; the water’s too cold. The first 3 minutes of exercise are not good for strenuous activity; your body and muscles aren’t warm enough yet. The first 3 minutes in a frozen car are miserable, because, well, it’s frozen!

Your first 3 posts will also be too cold. Give yourself a chance to warm up to the process, and establish a rhythm and your first discovery of your voice.

Pre-writing Benefit: Get Feedback (Good Feedback)

I followed my own advice by happy chance a few months ago, in preparation for launching my blog. I knew my subject matter, and had a few ideas to get started, but I didn’t have a name. I couldn’t start designing a site without knowing what it was going to be called. I decided to set up a temporary blog on Wordpress.com. I password protected it so only my friends and family could see it, and got started writing content.

Since it was private, I posted a list of questions at the end of each entry asking for feedback. You can see the ones I asked below. Notice that most of them are open ended, meaning you can’t answer any of them with a “Yes” or a “No”. If you must ask a yes or no, like my first question, follow it up with an open ended one to draw out that answer. It helps to get someone to open up about their thoughts, which is what you want.

1. Did the post grab your attention within the first 2-3 sentences? If not, at what point did you engage with the post, if at all?
2. Which part was not written as well as the rest of it?
3. Which points were not explained satisfactorily?
4. How interesting was this post to you, personally?
5. What part was most interesting? Least?
6. What did you learn, if anything?
7. Tell me something you did not like about this entry. Really. I need constructive criticism to help me sort out weaknesses in my writing before I go live with this site.

Criticism Can Be Soul Crushing, Timing Is Everything

Number 7 is one I added after about a month (6 or so posts), and I’m glad I waited. I wasn’t very confident in myself and if I had gotten much in the way of criticism it would have been really discouraging because I was at a vulnerable stage.

If you’re not ready for criticism (and be honest with yourself), let your test readers know. Ask questions that are almost guaranteed to get positive results, like “What part did you like the most?” Ask for positive feedback for the time being, and let them know that you’ll add some new questions when you’re ready for constructive criticism.

By the time I’d written a handful of posts, I had received enough positive feedback to start having some confidence in myself, and found myself really craving some quality criticism. I knew my writing could be better, but I wasn’t sure how.

The consensus among my critics was best summed up by my friend Aaron, who shared much wisdom on the subject of pre-writing with me.

I found myself thinking of the introduction to a sermon. That’s a little different from the introduction to a blog post, because most of the people there for a sermon are already committed to listening to the whole thing (or at least sticking around anyway) so a preacher has more leisure to ease into his topic.

It stung a little, but that’s to be expected. After a quick shrug off, I was positively elated by the critical feedback. It was as exciting, or even more so, than the mega dosage of encouragement he supplied with it.

Since then, I have been going through the posts I’ve completed, and taking a machete to the first paragraph or two of every post. It was a valuable lesson that has made my entries more effective. I learned it through the power of pre-writing.

Carlos Velez is a writer with a full-time job on the side (for now!). He blogs about achieving goals and making change. Carlos’ blog, Conscious Me, allows readers to not only observe a journey to success in progress, but to participate and grow themselves.

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