Develop Your Titles - Plan Ahead!

                           Image courtesy of Boians Cho Joo Young / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I had an idea I just felt I had to share. It's not necessarily a new idea, more like a new twist on an old idea. I'm sure a lot of us develop our blog post ideas well in advance of publishing them. Countless times during our day new ideas pop into our minds, and we desperately look for something to write them down on.

It's not just the subject of our blog posts that we should give strong consideration to, but also the titles of our posts. Again, this is likely not news to you. I'm sure you've either read it somewhere, or had it suggested to you. Your title can make or break an article.

I fully agree with the importance of both of the above suggestions, and they're both related to the subject of this post. But what I want to talk about is something just a little different. What I've found inspirational for me is developing titles and then walking away from them for a day or two.

I actually go so far as to start a draft of a post, but all I do is think about a great title, and then type it into the title bar. That's it. I don't start the body of the article, just the title. In fact, I will often come up with several blog titles in one sitting, start my blog posts by entering the title of the post, and then I close down my blog and walk away for a while.

When I come back to the post a day or so later, I may adjust the title if I've had a slight change of heart, or I might leave it as it is. I think of this as my "sober second thought". After this second go at my title, I'm ready to write the actual post. Sometimes I may develop a considerable list of blog titles well in advance of the actual writing process.

What does this do for me exactly? I find it gets the creative juices flowing. If I know I've got that seed germinating in my blog already, I will continuously go over the idea for the post in my minds eye before going live with the completed article. Sometimes this process can take days.

Creativity should not be rushed, but you also don't want to lose track of a great idea. The process of developing and refining titles is how I deal with both needs. How do you maintain and encourage that creative spark? Leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.