It’s Time to Do Something with you Blog Post Drafts

I have 121 post drafts on my blog. One hundred and twenty-one posts I’ve started but not yet published. That’s seven pages of posts and more than a hundred ideas and moments waiting to happen.

I decided I’m done waiting. I’m done staring at my drafts folder, waiting for something to happen with the hard work I’ve begun but haven’t yet finished, the hours upon hours of ideas and words I’ve created that just sit there. I decided to make something happen.

Every day for an entire month, I’m going to take care of at least one blog post draft.

I’m going to publish it on Beyond Mommying, submit it for publication somewhere else, delete it, archive it, do something with it. And at the end of the month I hope to have something to show for it, even if it’s just less drafts in my folder!

I’ll be updating this post and my progress periodically so be sure to come back and check out how it’s going!

Day 1:

• I submitted two posts to other publications (pieces 1 and 2). They’re posts that were rejected previously but I’m trying them at other publications I’ve been trying to break in to. We’ll see what happens!
• I privately published twelve blog post drafts that have been published elsewhere. I have a tendency to leave my posts that are published on other sites in my drafts folder. I’ve been trying to publish them privately so they’re still there but not visible but I’m not always good about going back and actually doing it!
• I trashed two non-posts that I was keeping safe while my computer was broken a few weeks ago.
• I trashed four nothing posts that had no content (seriously, completely blank draft posts!)
• I trashed a blog post draft that was one paragraph long and that I’m no longer interested in writing.
• I trashed two other draft that were lists I completed eons ago.
• I e-mailed a post to myself that Honeybun had started because I no longer plan to publish it but I also don’t want to lose her work (then I trashed the draft).

All of that accomplished in one toddler’s morning nap and I’m officially under 100 drafts. Not a bad start, now if only I had the same motivation to clean my house!

Day 2:

• I integrated a draft into a new post. 
• Piece 1 submitted for publication was declined. On to find another place to submit it.
• I trashed a blog post draft that was one paragraph long and that I’m no longer interested in writing.

Day 3:

• Submitted Piece 1 to another publication where I’ve been published previously.
• Published a piece that just needed polishing and a picture.

Days 4 and 5:

• Weekend!

Day 6:

• Deleted another nothing post that had no content.

UPDATE: So I haven’t kept up with dealing with one draft a day but I’m still plodding along through my drafts folder and slowly working the number down!

Day 9:

• Started another draft (I know, I’m the worst…two steps forward, one step back!)

Day 13:

• Reread and edited a draft, sitting with it some more for now, contemplating how to wrap it up.
• Got another rejection for Piece 1.

Day 14:

• Finished and submitted Piece 3.
• Privately published another draft that has been published elsewhere.

Day 20:

• Finished and published a draft that just needed polishing and pictures.

Day 23:

• Finished and published another draft that just needed polishing and pictures.

Day 27:

• Deleted another nothing post that had no content.
• Got a rejection for Piece 3.
• Submitted Piece 3 to another publication where I’ve not been published before.
• Reread a few drafts that I’m going to continue sitting with.

Day 31:

• I trashed five blog post drafts that were short lists, none of which I’m interested in finishing and publishing.
• Trashed another blog post draft that was a link I had saved that is no longer active (I think my plan was to reference the link and do a follow-up post?)
• I trashed a blog post draft that was one paragraph long and that I’m no longer interested in writing.
• Trashed a blog post draft that was a repeat of other drafts. (When we fly, I usually type out a bunch of posts in one document then split it out to individual posts later. This one got split but the original all-together post never got deleted.)
• Privately published a post that I took down years ago. 
• Re-read two other drafts that I hope to finish and submit for publication in the future.
• Started another draft.

So I didn’t do one draft a day for the entire month as I’d hoped, but I did touch every single draft in my blog post drafts folders and brought the number down from 121 to 83, meaning I cleaned out 38 blog post drafts (more than one per day!) which is an overall decrease of almost a third.

This is where I stand on the blog post drafts I have left:

• 1 is a draft I’m waiting for brand approval on before publishing (hopefully soon!)
• 5 are seasonal posts that I will hopefully finish when the appropriate season rolls around.
• 33 are posts I plan to finish and publish on Beyond Mommying some day.
• 16 are posts I’d like to finish and submit to other places for publication.
• 26 are drafts that I’m not sure what I want to do with but that I’m not ready to get rid of yet.
• 2 are drafts that I will probably never do anything with that I need to decide where to store.