Omg ... this!!! Just yesterday, I sat down with a tingle of anticipation to "map out 30 days of content in a day." Using a well-known teacher's strategies and template. Should be a breeze and make my life soooo much easier, right? Six frustrating hours later, I'd whirled myself in circles and had no idea what I even write about anymore!! 😅 I felt like a fool and a failure ... until I remembered that the magic I gather upon the earth reveals itself when I am ready to see it. Not because my calendar says it should. Sighhhhh ... as much as it would be nice to have that 30 day plan, it choked my creativity into panicked silence. So I'll keep doing what I've been doing with a little more intention and now a lot more peace. Thank you so much for showing me I'm not alone!! 🤗
Right!! In theory it’s lovely and comforting to know (I’ve got two little toddlers home fulltime so to not have to think would be nice lol), but sometimes it just doesn’t work or you’ll end up replacing what you had planned anyway (so what’s the point then?!)
Thank you so much for sharing your experience 💫 and know that you’re never alone 💓
I write and ghost write professionally for clients and myself and been blogging for 20 years. I do both! But without some sort of a plan or content calendar/editorial calendar I feel like the writing is too superficial for my taste. It’s like I tend to circle around the same topic from the same point of view and that’s gets boring to me and the readers pretty quickly. So, I don’t necessarily feel more creative because of the calendar but it moves me to the right direction. But what I teach to my mentees is this: the idea of planning needs to work for you, not the other way around. I mean, the calendar needs to be flexible and the writer shouldn’t feel disappointed if they need to push things around for some reason. But having a plan/calendar as a writer means to me mostly a way to dive deeper. Just my two cents, couldn’t care less what others do. 😅
Thanks Nani for adding this perspective! I’d translate it as a form of intuitive direction too, where a rough guideline help you go deeper on things, but you’re flexible in the details.
The point about having a planning that works for you and not the other way around is golden, and how I approach it too. Appreciate you 💞
Kind of yes, absolutely follow your gut 😅 Sometimes we are too eager to talk about something and we get a bit blind to our own actions. I believe even a loose plan protects us doing the basic mistake of not changing the perspective. 😊
Absolutely, I think this is super valuable and I’ll bring it with me! Makes me inevitably think whether I do so naturally already or if I just repeat myself haha. I think after 7 years of writing about embroidery I definitely feel like a repetitive doll at this point 🫣😂 but here it feels fresh (naturally as it’s still a relatively new outlet comparatively)
I also get over enthusiastic with ideas, but tend to let those simmer so maybe I have an editorial calendar without knowing it 😆🤯🫣😜
I’m certain that over time you develop some sort of sixth sense about all this. But then again, it’s different for us who do this full-time (running a creative business) vs. someone with a corporate job having to find time for a side hustle.
Have to add. When you have a loose plan and get way excited about something (serial enthusiast, anyone?!! 🙋🏻♀️) it forces me to think if it’s worth to mix up my plan OR should I let it stew a bit more. ☺️
What I took from the exercise is the benefit of working around general themes and seasons which will guide my work. But I can't plan five specific posts a week! That was too much pressure and my muse fled the scene! 😂
The most important thing is to find out what works for you. 👍🏻 I think once you stick to some plan for a few months and see the statistics, mentor yourself and so on, you’ll quickly see if you’re on the track. But I cannot highlight enough 😄 my actual point that if writing is your longtime plan, planning might take you deeper. 😍🤩
Your piece makes me so happy. Not only because of the giant permission slip you give plus the sustenance of all these comments…because droves of people are feeling more empowered to do this the way that suits them!!
Yes! I so appreciate this. I have zero calendar too (aside from the promise of weekly content) and that goes for Substack and my business that exists separate to it. I feel like the magic comes from being able to respond to what’s happening in my life and that if I try to get too far ahead of myself, it becomes contrived and forced rather than intuitive and creative.
Like you say, it’s very separate to being consistent. It’s funny how we’ve coupled together consistently with a need to have more fixed plans. The idea of creating one brings me out in a rash 😆
Hahahah this made me laugh! Thanks for adding the rash bit I can so relate 😆 im often contemplating on whether the urge to plan and schedule is partly a brainwashing from school where we’re taught how to fit into the work system, which requires some more structure when more people are involved… and we’re then conditioned into thinking that it’s the only way “work” functions.
Secondly, whether the uncontrollable unpredictable nature of creativity and passion is scary and we therefore try to tame it in some way to create a false sense of control….?
Yes! And a lack of self trust- in our own generative capacity, that the ideas will come, that we can consistently take the time to be creative, and treat it with the same importance as any other relationship we value. There’s so much tied up in it!
I love the idea of Ed calendar structure (and created them at jobby-jobs for years) but I’m more of am improv creator. My calendar is to publish once at least once a week and lately it’s been screaming in on last possible day, Sunday.
When I’m unfocused I might write in a paper monthly calendar when to write and publish so I won’t ruminate and spin my wheels but the topic is not pre-planned.
I really believe that each human system has its own system and it’s best to follow. Thanks for this. With you 💯 🌺
For a year now I have had two set days per month that I aim to hit ‘publish’. I have a rough idea of what the next 2-3 posts will be about based on scribbles in my little yellow notebook, but other than that I don’t have an editorial calendar. It works for me. I enjoy writing the posts and having the two set dates a month gives me enough structure to not procrastinate endlessly.
Thanks so much for sharing! It's about finding the right balance between holding oneself accountable to get the work done and nurturing the creative spritis isn't it! I'm 100% with you x
This was a great reminder that there's more than one way to create and publish our content! I've been struggling with not having the same type of content each week but I'm discovering that along with being a mood reader, I'm also a mood content creator. My main goal is weekly consistently vs having set days to publish.
Oh I love he expression of being a mood reader and mood creator. Haven't thought of it related to reading before, but you're so rightt! And can be extended to music and film too... I definitely have seasonal moods for these things too
I can only agree. Though I came up with a "fixed" writing day (every Tuesday) to not end up not writing at all in the daily chaos (there will always be something that's more important right now), but nothing kills my creativity more than having a schedule, maybe even pre-planned topics. I don't even have this for my blog. I just have a list of possibilites (for both, substack and my blog) and see what I end up with on the go. Which is most often something that's not on my list, which is why it's getting longer and longer (can truely relate to having too many ideas rather than too few 😅). So, on Tuesdays I write, but what I write about and for which platform, I see when I start. 😊
We’re in the same boat of having a brief idea and then ending up starting from scratch with something new haha! I do this all the time… currently have a drafts folder of 70 essays 😅
Oh I can relate! I have a notes app with about 20 seperate notes for essays, 10 started drafts for my blog, a word document with LOTS more blog post ideas, another one for my substack and many paper notepads collected in a box or my bag. Most annoying thing is when I forget where I've written an idea, but also can't remember the details anymore. :D
I completely agree. To me, deadlines are the death of creativity: creativity cannot be roused on call. Its better to post once a month with a piece you feel is complete and beautiful than try to pump out low quality content regularly. After I figured this out, things became much clearer.
I’m so glad you found what works for you! Whether we love off it financially or not, in the artistic niche we need to care for our creativity in another way than the mainstream business “content advice”
I need at least a rough idea outlined or I flounder and don't publish anything, but I am not pressuring or judging myself if I don't have a perfect content calendar either. I keep a lot of drafts with ideas and outlines, which helps a ton.
I’m even wondering if there is such a thing as a perfect calendar, because if it isn’t being followed than what’s the point, right 😅🫣 love that you’re giving yourself the space to be flexible and adapt to what fits you best 💞
I too, have tons of drafts where I store ideas and outlines. This can be helpful but also feels like a lot depending on how long I let some of them stew in there.
Yes! Organization of ideas in like outlines and whatnot certainly helps creativity, gives it some structure. Its only when its too rigid and becomes a strict calendar or something where it becomes a problem.
The exactly thing I needed to read today! Thank you. I’ve been succumbing to the temptation to schedule, and it’s making me feel uptight. There is no need. It’s a norm from a different type of discipline. Wishing you all the flow x
I’m so glad this found you at the right time!! It just started boiling last night when out of nowhere I got loads of “schedule this schedule that” posts and I was just like no no no haha that doesn’t work for me and I think I’ve been successful running my business anyway
I feel seen! 'I'm a wing-it intuition based type person'. I've tried to make a schedule for my writing in the past but creative blocks and missed deadlines kept happening. I felt rushed that I had to have something ready to publish each week. Although I do have a set day of the week I share, I don't have a plan of what it is that will be coming up each week. Not having this plan, allows my creativity freedom, and multiple posts scheduled in advice without stress on the what, where or how. Thank you for sharing.
However, some consistency is key because if we don’t take action on a regular basis, life gets on the way of creative time…like a painter taking the paint brush 👩🎨 or a writer taking a pen 🖊️ regularly will jump start inspiration on a regular basis…but as soon as it feels like business, the inspiration will be blocked…
100% consistency is key in everything - but as I say in the text, i don't think a calendar and consistency necessarily has to be the same thing.. There are so many POVs to look at this aren't there :)
For me, the purpose of running my own creative business is to do so in a way that will continue to nurture my creativity, not kill it. "
This is the greatest resource in nurturing your creativity. You have to fall in love with every piece you're writing. And for that creativity will just flow.
I like the idea of an editorial calendar because I'm a planner and I like to feel in control and maybe, a little bit, because it makes me feel like I'm more legit (which I think is wrong, but the feeling is there.) But so far it hasn't worked out that way. I usually know what I'm doing a couple of posts ahead and I have a couple of things in reserve in case the ideas don't come. That is working out fine for me, too.
It’s interesting how what seems great on paper isn’t necessarily working in practice… feels like quite a lot of things turn out that way whether we anticipate it or not! Xx
Omg ... this!!! Just yesterday, I sat down with a tingle of anticipation to "map out 30 days of content in a day." Using a well-known teacher's strategies and template. Should be a breeze and make my life soooo much easier, right? Six frustrating hours later, I'd whirled myself in circles and had no idea what I even write about anymore!! 😅 I felt like a fool and a failure ... until I remembered that the magic I gather upon the earth reveals itself when I am ready to see it. Not because my calendar says it should. Sighhhhh ... as much as it would be nice to have that 30 day plan, it choked my creativity into panicked silence. So I'll keep doing what I've been doing with a little more intention and now a lot more peace. Thank you so much for showing me I'm not alone!! 🤗
Right!! In theory it’s lovely and comforting to know (I’ve got two little toddlers home fulltime so to not have to think would be nice lol), but sometimes it just doesn’t work or you’ll end up replacing what you had planned anyway (so what’s the point then?!)
Thank you so much for sharing your experience 💫 and know that you’re never alone 💓
I write and ghost write professionally for clients and myself and been blogging for 20 years. I do both! But without some sort of a plan or content calendar/editorial calendar I feel like the writing is too superficial for my taste. It’s like I tend to circle around the same topic from the same point of view and that’s gets boring to me and the readers pretty quickly. So, I don’t necessarily feel more creative because of the calendar but it moves me to the right direction. But what I teach to my mentees is this: the idea of planning needs to work for you, not the other way around. I mean, the calendar needs to be flexible and the writer shouldn’t feel disappointed if they need to push things around for some reason. But having a plan/calendar as a writer means to me mostly a way to dive deeper. Just my two cents, couldn’t care less what others do. 😅
Thanks Nani for adding this perspective! I’d translate it as a form of intuitive direction too, where a rough guideline help you go deeper on things, but you’re flexible in the details.
The point about having a planning that works for you and not the other way around is golden, and how I approach it too. Appreciate you 💞
Kind of yes, absolutely follow your gut 😅 Sometimes we are too eager to talk about something and we get a bit blind to our own actions. I believe even a loose plan protects us doing the basic mistake of not changing the perspective. 😊
Absolutely, I think this is super valuable and I’ll bring it with me! Makes me inevitably think whether I do so naturally already or if I just repeat myself haha. I think after 7 years of writing about embroidery I definitely feel like a repetitive doll at this point 🫣😂 but here it feels fresh (naturally as it’s still a relatively new outlet comparatively)
I also get over enthusiastic with ideas, but tend to let those simmer so maybe I have an editorial calendar without knowing it 😆🤯🫣😜
I’m certain that over time you develop some sort of sixth sense about all this. But then again, it’s different for us who do this full-time (running a creative business) vs. someone with a corporate job having to find time for a side hustle.
Yeah I’ve reflected a lot about the 6th sense thing too… what’s your experience after many years? You have a 6th sense for it?
Have to add. When you have a loose plan and get way excited about something (serial enthusiast, anyone?!! 🙋🏻♀️) it forces me to think if it’s worth to mix up my plan OR should I let it stew a bit more. ☺️
What I took from the exercise is the benefit of working around general themes and seasons which will guide my work. But I can't plan five specific posts a week! That was too much pressure and my muse fled the scene! 😂
The most important thing is to find out what works for you. 👍🏻 I think once you stick to some plan for a few months and see the statistics, mentor yourself and so on, you’ll quickly see if you’re on the track. But I cannot highlight enough 😄 my actual point that if writing is your longtime plan, planning might take you deeper. 😍🤩
Your piece makes me so happy. Not only because of the giant permission slip you give plus the sustenance of all these comments…because droves of people are feeling more empowered to do this the way that suits them!!
💞🫂
Let’s empower each other to embrace our inner fire 🔥💯💫
Yessss! Such a needed message 💜
Yes! I so appreciate this. I have zero calendar too (aside from the promise of weekly content) and that goes for Substack and my business that exists separate to it. I feel like the magic comes from being able to respond to what’s happening in my life and that if I try to get too far ahead of myself, it becomes contrived and forced rather than intuitive and creative.
Like you say, it’s very separate to being consistent. It’s funny how we’ve coupled together consistently with a need to have more fixed plans. The idea of creating one brings me out in a rash 😆
Hahahah this made me laugh! Thanks for adding the rash bit I can so relate 😆 im often contemplating on whether the urge to plan and schedule is partly a brainwashing from school where we’re taught how to fit into the work system, which requires some more structure when more people are involved… and we’re then conditioned into thinking that it’s the only way “work” functions.
Secondly, whether the uncontrollable unpredictable nature of creativity and passion is scary and we therefore try to tame it in some way to create a false sense of control….?
Yes! And a lack of self trust- in our own generative capacity, that the ideas will come, that we can consistently take the time to be creative, and treat it with the same importance as any other relationship we value. There’s so much tied up in it!
The control element is a big one though!
I love the idea of Ed calendar structure (and created them at jobby-jobs for years) but I’m more of am improv creator. My calendar is to publish once at least once a week and lately it’s been screaming in on last possible day, Sunday.
When I’m unfocused I might write in a paper monthly calendar when to write and publish so I won’t ruminate and spin my wheels but the topic is not pre-planned.
I really believe that each human system has its own system and it’s best to follow. Thanks for this. With you 💯 🌺
Love the "Each human system has its own system" - We're totally on the same page!! x
For a year now I have had two set days per month that I aim to hit ‘publish’. I have a rough idea of what the next 2-3 posts will be about based on scribbles in my little yellow notebook, but other than that I don’t have an editorial calendar. It works for me. I enjoy writing the posts and having the two set dates a month gives me enough structure to not procrastinate endlessly.
Thanks so much for sharing! It's about finding the right balance between holding oneself accountable to get the work done and nurturing the creative spritis isn't it! I'm 100% with you x
This was a great reminder that there's more than one way to create and publish our content! I've been struggling with not having the same type of content each week but I'm discovering that along with being a mood reader, I'm also a mood content creator. My main goal is weekly consistently vs having set days to publish.
Oh I love he expression of being a mood reader and mood creator. Haven't thought of it related to reading before, but you're so rightt! And can be extended to music and film too... I definitely have seasonal moods for these things too
I can't plan content ahead of time for the same reason you can't - the second I look at a pre-planned content calendar, creativity runs dry.
Haha yes 🙌 and the times I’ve had planned out content I ended up writing something new from scratch in D-day anyway 🫣
I can only agree. Though I came up with a "fixed" writing day (every Tuesday) to not end up not writing at all in the daily chaos (there will always be something that's more important right now), but nothing kills my creativity more than having a schedule, maybe even pre-planned topics. I don't even have this for my blog. I just have a list of possibilites (for both, substack and my blog) and see what I end up with on the go. Which is most often something that's not on my list, which is why it's getting longer and longer (can truely relate to having too many ideas rather than too few 😅). So, on Tuesdays I write, but what I write about and for which platform, I see when I start. 😊
We’re in the same boat of having a brief idea and then ending up starting from scratch with something new haha! I do this all the time… currently have a drafts folder of 70 essays 😅
Oh I can relate! I have a notes app with about 20 seperate notes for essays, 10 started drafts for my blog, a word document with LOTS more blog post ideas, another one for my substack and many paper notepads collected in a box or my bag. Most annoying thing is when I forget where I've written an idea, but also can't remember the details anymore. :D
Haha 100% relate 😂
I also need flexibility to create. I have so many ideas and drafts I just think I work better this way!
I completely agree. To me, deadlines are the death of creativity: creativity cannot be roused on call. Its better to post once a month with a piece you feel is complete and beautiful than try to pump out low quality content regularly. After I figured this out, things became much clearer.
I’m so glad you found what works for you! Whether we love off it financially or not, in the artistic niche we need to care for our creativity in another way than the mainstream business “content advice”
Nice perspective! Thanks for sharing...
I need at least a rough idea outlined or I flounder and don't publish anything, but I am not pressuring or judging myself if I don't have a perfect content calendar either. I keep a lot of drafts with ideas and outlines, which helps a ton.
I’m even wondering if there is such a thing as a perfect calendar, because if it isn’t being followed than what’s the point, right 😅🫣 love that you’re giving yourself the space to be flexible and adapt to what fits you best 💞
I too, have tons of drafts where I store ideas and outlines. This can be helpful but also feels like a lot depending on how long I let some of them stew in there.
Yes! Organization of ideas in like outlines and whatnot certainly helps creativity, gives it some structure. Its only when its too rigid and becomes a strict calendar or something where it becomes a problem.
Right, and in those cases what used to be a passion project just becomes another chores….
The exactly thing I needed to read today! Thank you. I’ve been succumbing to the temptation to schedule, and it’s making me feel uptight. There is no need. It’s a norm from a different type of discipline. Wishing you all the flow x
I’m so glad this found you at the right time!! It just started boiling last night when out of nowhere I got loads of “schedule this schedule that” posts and I was just like no no no haha that doesn’t work for me and I think I’ve been successful running my business anyway
Thanks so much for sharing, and keep doing you 💫
I feel so much freedom reading this!! Thank you!
I feel seen! 'I'm a wing-it intuition based type person'. I've tried to make a schedule for my writing in the past but creative blocks and missed deadlines kept happening. I felt rushed that I had to have something ready to publish each week. Although I do have a set day of the week I share, I don't have a plan of what it is that will be coming up each week. Not having this plan, allows my creativity freedom, and multiple posts scheduled in advice without stress on the what, where or how. Thank you for sharing.
Yay thank YOU as well Tami for sharing and contributing to this growing club of non-conventional and intuitive writers 😍
Thank you for writing this!!! Makes me feel less like a failure or “wrong” for doing things intuitively. 🙏
Yay love that !
I agree with everything you said…
“Let things fall as they may.”-Dr. Brian Lima
However, some consistency is key because if we don’t take action on a regular basis, life gets on the way of creative time…like a painter taking the paint brush 👩🎨 or a writer taking a pen 🖊️ regularly will jump start inspiration on a regular basis…but as soon as it feels like business, the inspiration will be blocked…
Oh love that quote, thanks for sharing!
100% consistency is key in everything - but as I say in the text, i don't think a calendar and consistency necessarily has to be the same thing.. There are so many POVs to look at this aren't there :)
For me, the purpose of running my own creative business is to do so in a way that will continue to nurture my creativity, not kill it. "
This is the greatest resource in nurturing your creativity. You have to fall in love with every piece you're writing. And for that creativity will just flow.
Absolutely 💫
I like the idea of an editorial calendar because I'm a planner and I like to feel in control and maybe, a little bit, because it makes me feel like I'm more legit (which I think is wrong, but the feeling is there.) But so far it hasn't worked out that way. I usually know what I'm doing a couple of posts ahead and I have a couple of things in reserve in case the ideas don't come. That is working out fine for me, too.
It’s interesting how what seems great on paper isn’t necessarily working in practice… feels like quite a lot of things turn out that way whether we anticipate it or not! Xx