From Rough Draft to Published Article, Our Editing Process.

In a previous article, I wrote about how we handle our content developmentfor the LessAccounting blog. That article talked about a rough draft article’s origin. We’re not going to cover where we get inspiration for articles or article types. This post is about our editing process after a rough draft is created.

People involved in our content:

  • Me (Allan)
    • I write or start most of the articles.
    • I also get the article live in our blog, make the stupid little graphics, and do the vast majority of the keyword research.
  • Steven Bristol
    • Writes articles that inspire him. Occasionally, I’ll ask him to write something I need that is technical in nature, or topics e’s stronger at.
    • Steve “puts his stink” on articles that I need a second set of creator eyes on.
  • Donnie Cooper
    • Occasionally, Donnie helps me with Keyword Research.
    • When I was clueless about SEO and content development, Donnie’s help was needed more often. Now Donnie is an SEO coach for me.
  • Mark Boss
    • Reads over everything we publish.
    • Ensures they are grammatically close to acceptable.
    • Helps write concluding statements, and rewords paragraphs to assist me in writing more clearly.

We write in Google Documents, if you’re using something else please tell me in the comments how it’s better than google documents.

My Google Docs account has several folders.

I use the google drive folders as a way to assign statuses and assign them as a task to each person in our editing process.

Half-Written Articles: this is where newly born articles and rough drafts live until I’m ready for someone to read them. There are usually over 30 documents in this folder. It’s filled with articles in different states of completion that are not yet ready to be push down the pipe to others. Some only have a few sentences or a link on the document. No one else is invited to this folder.

Waiting for Donnie (SEO coach): Donnie and I are the only people who have access to this folder. I only put articles here that need Donnie’s help. If an article needs keyword research help, I’ll move the document to this folder and email collaborators (Donnie) and Skype him to chat about it.

Waiting for Steve (business partner): Steve and I are the only people who have access to this folder. Articles that need Steve’s thoughts go here. I’ll move the document to this folder and email collaborators (Steve) and Skype him to chat about it.

Waiting for Mark (editor): Mark and I are the only people who have access to this folder. Articles that need final editing and proofreading go here. I’ll move the document to this folder, email collaborators (Mark), and usually suggest a date I’d like this back. “How about next Thursday?” Because Mark is the best editor in the world, he always has it back to me on time. Mark makes edits on the article and uses article comments to leave suggestions and questions.

Ready to be Deployed: I try to publish at least two articles per week. Sometimes I want to save an article for a later release. I’ll move an article to this folder to wait for the right date to publish an article. No one is invited to this folder.

Deployed: Once I publish an article it goes here. If it’s for guest blogging then I put a link in the top of the document to where it was published. No one else is invited to this folder.

Possible ebook: Occasionally, I write an article that I think I might want to expand on later. I sometimes drop published articles in this folder. They might even be half-written articles that feel better as a longer form article that I’ll use for a future ebook.

Sure this process has more steps and more process than it could. But knowing I have others reading what I write, tweaking and editing makes me more confident in my writing. I know Mark will catch my and its mistakes. I know Steve will make my ideas more clear and bold, and Donnie will ensure my keyword research sees all the angles.

Full Disclosure: I’m not a writer.

I don’t love to write. It’s not natural to me to write articles, but there’s joy in seeing people read them and give me feedback. It’s still a struggle for me to stay on topic and fully explain the points I want to make for an article. In a later article, I’ll write about my process that helps me complete articles.

Also check out about my writing process of going from idea to rough draft.

Related Post