The 3×3 Writing Process Steps
Importance of Planning
Failing to plan is planning to fail. If you don't know where you're going, how will you get there?
Writing, like road trips, requires pre-planning. You need to have a direction in mind, and a plan
for what you want to do along the way. Jumping right into your blog writing task without a plan
is a dangerous idea. It’s like going into war without a battle strategy.
The 3×3 writing process steps are made up of three major groups of three tasks. The major
groups for the process and its supporting steps are:
Prewriting
• Analyze
• Anticipate
• Adapt
Writing
• Research
• Organize
• Compose
Revising
• Revise
• Proofread
• Evaluate
The three key steps under each writing process group will be broken down with more detail
below.
Prewrite
Prewriting is the first group of tasks for the 3×3 writing process. Prewriting includes three sub-
tasks which are Analyze, Anticipate, and Adapt. Doing the brain work in this prewriting phase
will help turn your blog articles from mundane to meaningful.
Analyze
What is your big WHY or purpose for the particular blog article that you’re planning to write?
Starting with why is an excellent to gain perspective and direction for your blog article. In fact,
you should have a list of common questions that you plan to answer from various angles on your
blog. With this in mind, your first step must be to ANALYZE your purpose for writing your blog
article.
Also, think about how your blog post will inspire or motivate your readers. What action do you
want your reader to take after reading your blog post? Focus on how you want your receiver to
take action for their benefit as a result of being inspired and motivated by your content. Focus on
providing value!
Next, you need to decide on the best blog article format for your post. What is the best way to
communicate your message? Here is a list of blog post types for you to consider at this stage:
• List (or “listicle”)
• How-to / Tutorial
• Review
• Versus review (product / service comparison)
• Expert round-up / Resource
• Interview / Q&A
• Feature / Spotlight
• Podcast recap
• Checklist
• Editorial / Opinion post
• Recipe
Anticipate
The next step is to ANTICIPATE your audience and their specific profile. You can do a deep
reader profile exercise with specific information like age, occupation and gender or you can keep
it simple. For example, I anticipate that I’m writing to/for other bloggers, online marketers and
internet entrepreneurs.
Consider your audience’s knowledge and experience level on the particular subject. You want to
write slightly above the anticipated audience knowledge level so that you can exhibit expertise
on the subject and help your reader grow.
Next, anticipate the type of emotional response that you want your reader to have. Do you want
them to be inspired, relieved, motivated or thankful? Keep your anticipated reader response in
mind while you write. Analyze your readers’ responses to your blog post via emails, comments
and/or social media messages to see if they align with your anticipated response(s).
Adapt
Now it’s time to think about the language that you’ll use to elicit the emotional response that you
want. Prepare to ADAPT your language to accomplish this goal.
You must decide on the writing style that you plan to employ at this stage of the 3×3 writing
process. Decide whether your blog copy will be professional, conversational, whimsical,
academic or some useful combination.
Write
Writing includes three sub tasks which are Research, Organize and Compose. This is when
you’ll get all the ingredients you need to execute your blog writing strategy for the article at
hand.
Research
Now it’s time to gather information for your blog post. RESEARCH the top three or four blog
articles that you’ll be competing against for Google ranking. Study what these articles do well
and how you can improve upon them.
Organize
Outlining your articles before writing them is the secret to efficient and productive blog writing.
ORGANIZE all of the major points and their sub points into a blog post outline. Go through all
your research and leverage your domain knowledge on the subject. You will find that your major
points and sub points will likely end up being your headings and subheadings in your blog post’s
final draft.
Compose
COMPOSE your blog post’s zero draft at this step of the 3×3 writing process. Do you remember
all the good work that you did during the Prewriting stage? Now it’s time to put all of that good
stuff to use. Keep your blog post’s purpose, desired emotional response, blog post type,
anticipated audience and your emotional words list top-of-mind at this step.
Revise
Revising is the third and final group of 3×3 writing process steps. Executing this group of tasks
will take your blog articles from good to great. Revising includes three sub-tasks which are
Revise, Proofread, and Evaluate.
Revise
REVISE your article for conciseness and readability during this crucial step.
The revision process should remedy the following issues in your blog article:
• Run-on sentences
• Wordy phrases, etc.
Concise language is easier to read than fluff. Also, readers are more prone to share blog posts
that they can understand.
Lastly, use numbered lists and bulleted lists to communicate information in a form that’s easy to
digest.
Proofread
PROOFREAD your blog post and clean up spelling and grammar issues at this step. Correct
errors in names, numbers, subject and verb agreement and other grammatical issues. Get a fresh
set of eyes on your blog post if possible. Other people can see errors and offer feedback because
of their outside perspective.
Evaluate
Go back through the 3×3 writing process steps to see if you completed the tasks at every step.
Consider the following questions:
• Did you write your blog post with a clear purpose in mind?
• Did you write for the right audience and use the kind of language that will connect with
them?
• Did your research efforts produce the right information for your blog post and did you
disclose the sources for any statistics that you provided?
• Will your blog post inspire, motivate and/or educate the reader and drive them to take
action?
• Did you choose the best article format for communicating the information?
