The Pre-Writing Work That Will Make Blogging So Much Easier
By: Shaunta Grimes
Tags: Creativity, Byob, Blogging, Productivity, Writing

There are 13 days left before the writing part of the Blog-Your-Own-Book Challenge starts. I’m going to give you homework tonight that you might hate me for now, but you’ll really thank me for it later.

First, a story.

I’m a novelist. Before my first novel was published, I wrote three novels that were not. I was a straight-up pantser when I wrote those books. I was sure plotting would eat my story’s soul. That it would make it impossible for me to write my book the way I wanted to.

After my first novel was published, my editor did something that changed the way I write forever. She asked me to send her a synopsis for a novel I hadn’t written yet.

And she expected it by the end of the month.

I had to learn to plot. Fast. I did and the result was a book that A) was the best thing I’d written up to that date and B) I was able to write in one quarter of the time I was used to taking. One quarter.

I’ve plotted every book I’ve ever written since then. I’ve never looked back.

The PSST Framework is Like Blog-Post Plotting

All of that is to say that I use a framework for my blog posts for the same reason I plot my novels. It’s faster. It’s so much easier. And, it turns out, it’s actually pretty fun.

I like thinking about my blog posts and imagining what they might be.

PSST stands for Premise, Story, Subheads, and Take-away.

I actually have a page in my Rocketbook that I used a Sharpie on to make a form that I literally fill out before I write each post.

The PSST page in my Rocketbook. Photo: Author

I use a Frixion pen to fill out the form for every post. A little water erases it, but leaves the Sharpie template. If I end up not actually writing my post that day or I want to create a bunch of PSST forms for posts, I just take a picture of them. Like the one above, which is for a post I didn’t actually write. Yet.

The parts are so simple. Let me break it down for you.

Premise

Premise is just a ‘p’ for ‘working title’ — because I thought PSST Framework was cute.

Just write what your post is about in a few words. Don’t be cute or clever. Think newspaper headline. You need to be able to look back on your post framework and know what you were wanting to talk about.

This is a good exercise, too, because simple, clear, concise titles do well for blog posts.

Story

I firmly believe that every every blog post should start with a story. In the first ‘S’ box on my form, I write a sentence or two about which story I’ll tell in that particular post.

I write enough to remind myself of the story I want to tell, but really only a few words. I don’t spend too much time here and I pretty much never second guess myself. If I get ready to write and a better story comes to me, I write that one instead. But most of the time, my instincts are pretty good.

I bet yours are, too. We’re storytellers. Trust that.

Subheads

This is pretty much the body of your post in a series of sentences.

Just think about what you want to say about your premise. It helps me to ask myself ‘what is the first thing some one needs to know’ and then I ask ‘and then what’ until I reach the end.

Take-Away

Your take-away is the way you end your post. What do you want your readers to take from it? What do you want them to do after they read your post? How do you want to change them?

Your Homework

Okay, so a few days ago I asked you to come up with your 31 posts for your BYOB Project.

In the next 13 days, before August 1, I want you to use the PSST framework on each one of your 31 posts. It shouldn’t take you too long. It takes me less than ten minutes to use the framework on my own posts every day.

I’m actually using Dabble to keep track of and plan my posts. I created a system there for managing all my PSST work on every post in one place. You can read about that here.

You can also download a PSST Framework worksheet here.