Right now, I am writing for this site by moving my material through stages. These stages exist as a list in Roam.
One stage is Post Ideas (i.e., ideas for posts). Here I remind myself to “write it down.” It doesn’t matter if the idea is good or bad. If it’s an idea, I get it written down.
But with Roam, I have something written down already. So I’m usually writing down a tentative title and then pasting a reference to one of my preexisting notes. I may toss in a new note as a kind of explanation for what I’m thinking.
The next stage is called Draft it Up. Here, I make sure I’ve got the idea explained in words that make some sense. If I have multiple notes that are somehow connected, but which have only been thrown together, I do the work of spelling out the connection between them.
The next stage is called Shape it Up for Posting. In this stage, I add links and check for typos. I also add additional text to embellish or explain the thoughts.
Finally, I have a stage called Published. This is where I put items that I’ve published. This stage is my target. I’m trying to move the material through those earlier stages so that I have the satisfaction of moving the finalized post into this “end zone” stage of the process.
Right now, working within these stages is helping me write and publish in a way that feels manageable.