The Super Easy Trick for Keeping Story Ideas Ready to Go
By: Christina M. Ward
Tags: Creativity, Marketing, Productivity, Writing, Writing Tips

Whatever you plan to write today/this week, put these idea cards into the “WRITING” column, which simply means, these are the ones in progress. For my day, I select two or three or create a virtual card for a new article. It is so much easier to ignore all of the racing thoughts and ideas when you can put them on a card, file them over in the ideas column, so you can focus on the few smaller goals of your day.

Then for your articles, do a little planning, get them mapped out, and write!

An article could be in this category for several days or longer.

When an article has its bones and its flesh, move the card or sticky note over to the “TO BE EDITED COLUMN” and then leave it there.

Note: In the picture above, the article you are currently reading was listed in the Writing column as I worked on it. Next to the article idea, I have added “in Medium editor” which tells me where the draft is located. This could say “Word document” or “Google Docs” or “In (Insert your blog name here) Drafts”, etc.

When I stepped away from this article for a bit, I added a bit more info so I would know exactly where to begin working on it at the next writing session:

Author’s screenshot

When the article is complete, I will right-click and lift that “card” to move it over to the “TO BE EDITED” column. In spreadsheets, copy and paste to move. For physical methods, move the actual sticky note or index card.

Add articles to the “To Be Edited” column when they are ready for proofreading

Let this article marinate for a few hours or even better, a day. While some articles are awaiting proofreading, you continue working on articles in the WRITING column.

But do step away from these TO BE EDITED cards long enough for the writing of it to muddy a bit in your mind. This allows fresh eyes for proofreading and editing.

THEN proofread, edit, and polish.

A second rest/edit period helps if you are prone to missing typos or need lots of time to see those areas that need editing for clarity.

Spell check — always.

Grammar (Hemingway is helpful if you are prone to sentence structure issues).

Clarity/readability.

Concision, ordering, flow.

SEO polishing & metadata.

Research for placement of the article.

When you are done in the “TO BE EDITED” Column, move the card over to “COMPLETED.” From here you can select completed articles when you are ready for publishing, pitching, or placement.

The “Completed Today” (Or DONE) column has a few purposes

Keeps track of what you have completed for the day, Some people keep business records of their work or like to add them to a master list.

These are ready for publishing.

This is a running list of your recent work to self-promote on social media.

This is a list of articles to monitor stats for the week.

If you are keeping track of client articles in this manner, these can remain here until they are PAID.

You can always add a PROMOTE or PENDING PAYMENT column as well. Whatever works for you, but keep it simple so you will not have any extra steps that add up to more legwork. A system only works if you actually use it.

The “Pitching” columns

Pitching takes a lot of time if you think of the overall planning, pitching, and waiting. But this method of article tracking works great for pitching.

When you decide an article should be pitched rather than placed on a content platform such as Medium or News Break, or on your personal blog, then place the card in the TO BE PLACED | PITCHED column.