Drafts: Dead Ends or Hidden Gems?

Let’s talk drafts. Do you ever peek at them and wonder why you didn’t press publish? For some reason, I always ignored my drafts folder, but recently one of the titles caught my attention and I realized I was on to a great idea when I started the post. I don’t remember why I abandoned it, but I opened that baby up and finished. I think it came down to timing, I just wasn’t feeling it back then.  Sometimes it can be a touchy topic, and I need to sleep on it before I commit. Often times, in that situation, it just feels great to get thoughts out of my head… and then I end up deleting it. But the overall experience motivated me to check out my other drafts as well. Some are hits, others still need to cook a bit.

My takeaway is that I’m going to use my drafts folder as a holding place for ideas that aren’t quite fleshed out. I can start the posts, add in my thoughts, and when I’m ready – or in need of some content ideas – I’ll have a head start!

How do you handle your drafts? Do you delete them or pick up and finish?

Comments

  3. I have drafts that are years old, just waiting for me to be ready to invest the energy into fleshing out the ideas, look up supporting facts, or just type out all the words.

    Historical note: the reason we put the Recent Drafts module on the dashboard screen you see when you log in to WordPress (way back in 2008) was so that there would be a place you could not only access drafts (obviously you can do that from the posts screen), but so that you’d see the titles and it would remind you they’re there. 🙂

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  5. My favorite thing to do with the Drafts folder is to leave great titles or photos there. If I come up with a great idea but don’t have time to write up the rest of the post, I pop it into Drafts. Sometimes, like Jen says, I’m stuck with it for a year or more, especially if they’re seasonal or timely. I’ve got one tied to the opening of the Godzilla remake–oops, guess I’ll have to wait a while for that one to be current again. 😉

  6. As I get older, I find I sometimes get great ideas for posts when I’m on the go, and if I don’t write them down quick, I’ll forget them. I like the WordPress mobile app for this, because I can start a post real quick, jot down the meat of my idea, and then save it to draft. Then if I don’t remember to circle back later in the day/week/month, it’s waiting for me on my blog, where I am more likely to actually do something about it — whereas if I leave it in a Note or similar, I’ll probably never remember to flesh out the post and get it published. 🙂

  8. I agree, just about everything in my draft folder is a topic that is a sensitive subject or perhaps the beginning of a rant. I always sleep on posts like this before I publish. I need to revisit my draft folder, for me usually the posts that take a long time or are the hardest to finish are the ones that get a lot of engagement. Thanks for the encouragement Kathy!

  9. Most of the things sitting in my drafts are things I’ll probably never return to, but I do use them to keep posts I’ve written that I don’t plan on publishing for a bit (for instance, I’ll write a book review right after I’ve finished the book, but I’ve already got a bunch of content planned so it won’t go up for another week or two).

  10. I sometimes save a draft for a post that I know I’m going to want to do far in the future. It never fails that I think of a fun holiday project on that holiday! :/ Such a good idea to use it more frequently as a holding place!

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