A devoted fan of Change and Cherish, named 'Whitney Zee,' posted a comment yesterday to which I found too good to not draw your attention. You can find the comment under yesterday's post, which was entitled Yer a Cougar, Harry. I'll let you read the comment yourself, but Whitney's primary concern was the fact that the titles of my posts are uninformative, confusing, and downright referential. And I agree.
My blog posts have absolutely horrible titles, completely failing any and all SEO tests and generally causing headaches for my devoted readers. The process I use to draft a blog post only makes the titles even more miserable, but I'd like to take this post to show you how I do what I do.
Now, when I first begin, I'm usually in my room or out in a public area, usually a food court. I make sure to put my game face on.
I don't plan any of the posts I write prior to their actual drafting. When I sit down, generally, all I have is a vague memory of the yesterday and maybe a couple of pictures. I usually spend a few minutes just staring at the screen and typing in a placeholder for the verse I haven't yet selected because I don't yet know the topic of the post yet. When I finally decide what I write about, I do so with great gusto.
Everything I write is mostly prose. Generally, what you see written down is directly from my mind to the paper. I really don't review or edit the posts, which explains the many typos and errors you likely find. I do this because I don't have a lot of time in my days as it is, and I'm more concerned in presenting daily semi-spiritual content rather than an entirely polished product. I save my polished material for other projects. I also make sure to leave spaces in between the paragraphs for where the pictures will go.
I put the picture(s) in the correct spaces. I actually generally rewrite the sections around the pictures, especially if what I've selected barely fits in with the final product.
I browse LDS.org for associated topics from the Standard Works (or other sources if I feel so inspired), selecting a verse less so for it's raw spirituality and more so for its direct application to the spiritual application behind the post. I generally hope people will follow the link to the verse and read the surrounding context, which, in my mind, is often just as important as the verse itself.
Finally, the only thing left to do in the post's construction itself is name is, which I almost always do last. At this point, the fun part is neatly tucked out of the way, and I'm already dreading venturing into the bounds of Facebook to update my status. I really don't like Facebook, but I recognize its necessity. A lot of my creative energy is shot at this point, so I generally slap down the first thing that comes to mind. In this post, for example, I thought, What's the point of the post? I'm talking about how an entire college campus has managed to keep a focus on Christ, and how proud I am to be a part of that. That makes me a cougar. How can I reference being a cougar in here? Maybe a Harry Potter reference? What about ... this one? (I didn't actually look up the video, but here it is for your viewing pleasure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9GwIeh5FIY) Yeah, that's good. That is literally the amount of thought I put into the title. Now, I don't doubt that, even if I put in a few more minutes of thought, I would still manage to blow it, but I really am just terrible at naming things.
However, as Whitney put it, there really is no excuse for this weakness of mine. Besides, if it's a weakness of mine, it's time to turn it into a strength. So! Starting today, I will try to do a better job titling my posts in such a way that archival readers can more accurately know what I'm talking about. Do let me know how I did today!
I hope from this post that you all recognize that I really do love input! Please, if there's anything I can do to make this blog better, please let me know in the comments below.
I wrote a commentary about this post on March 19, 2015. Click here to read!
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