My system for writing a 10,000 word blog post in 5 hours

By March 4, 2016 53 Comments on My system for writing a 10,000 word blog post in 5 hours

Writing is easy.

Just pick up a pencil and start putting words on paper.

(Or if you were born after 1925, use a computer. It’s faster.)

But writing stuff that people actually want to read?

That’s hard.

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If you’re anything like me, you tend to overcomplicate the process.

The great idea you had at 8 a.m. turns into a 12 hour escapade that leaves you frustrated and swearing that you’ll never do this again.

For example…

It took me 25+ hours to finish writing this 10,000 word behemoth of an article. By the time I finished it I was completely exhausted and never wanted to write anything again.

But then I found an old blog post I wrote 2 years ago (yay for blogs!) and I was reminded of a crazy cool way to write really good long form content without wanting to pluck my eye balls out.

So, I started using that method again and quickly churned out my next 3 posts (all of which averaged 2,000+ words) in less than 5 hours a piece.

Here is the process:

  1. Write an outline
  2. Open up your voice recorder app
  3. Talk through your outline
  4. Transcribe the recording
  5. Pretty it up a little

Want to see it in action?

Good! Here goes…

This is what that process look like in action (finished product)

Step 1: Write an outline.

Here is the outline I wrote:

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Step 2: Open your voice recorder app

I use the built in recorder app for my iPhone

Step 3: Talk through your outline

Here is the audio of me talking through the outline: https://t.co/tM3nQJfIQT

Step 4: Transcribe the recording

Here is the transcription: https://t.co/osTuGRywGV

Step 5: Pretty it up

Here is the final copy: https://videofruit.com/blog/year-in-review-2015/

..

And that’s it.

That’s how I’m writing every blog post for Videofruit in 2016 (including this one).

I’ve found it’s much easier to talk than to write. The ideas flow 1,000,000x quicker. Then once I have the raw ideas down on paper, I can clean them up and edit them for the final version.

Hope that helps!

PS: If any of you use this method, I’d love for you to share your outline, recording, transcript and final version below so I can learn from you.