Saturday, March 28, 2015

Blog Update: Firming Up a Content Schedule - Part 1

In which I detail upcoming changes to Filmquisition.

Despite what I personally think is an impressive quantity of articles posted to Filmquisition lately, I can't deny that there's been very little consistency with when and which articles appear on which days.  Although absent for a shockingly long time, Date Night has made its return to the blog, with From the Vault soon to follow (even if I kind-of, sort-of already did that already).  There's been an absurd amount of news to cover lately - between trailers, posters and other headlines - leaving me with less time to editorialize, speculate or elaborate than I generally would like.  And just when I start to get into a groove with my content, something like work or an inexplicable delay with my Unreality article publication will throw things out of whack,
I've given the matter some thought, and have decided to stick as closely as I'm able to a weekly publishing schedule for Filmquisition.  Understandably, there will be some times where I won't be able to keep up with it.  Between working three jobs and writing an additional online article every week, I'm honestly surprised that I've been able to keep as near to one as I already have, but there is obviously room to improve on my current so-called schedule.

I will aim to publish three articles every weekday: one news item, one review and one editorial.  If I publish anything at all on the weekends, it will generally be catch-up for any odds and ends that I didn't quite get to during the week (hopefully just news items during an especially headline-filled week).
Now obviously there will be slow news days, when nothing of particular interest or importance goes on in the world of entertainment.  Those days can be supplemented by additional reviews or editorials.  Other days might be overflowing with news-worthy items, which might forcibly take the place of a previously scheduled review or editorial.

I plan to guard myself from unexpected hangups (such as an unfavorable work schedule or tragically unavoidable plans) by writing as much as I can in advance.  I'm not going to even attempt a stockpile of content weeks or even months in advance, because news strikes in the moment and I prefer for my content to be as relevant to the latest entertainment happenings as possible.
I can, however, write a couple reviews or the latest Trailer Park on my day off and hold their publication for a day or two.  The key is to try to smooth out my content so that you can better predict what I will be posting on any given day.

As a general rule, Extra, Extra!, Trailer Park, The Weekend Reportthe various updates (Blog, Netflix, Home Video) and (eventually) Oscar 101 will fill the news quota of any given day.  Likewise, Date Night, From the Vault, Diamond in the Rough, Revisited, Piece of the Puzzle (which shortly return with a more conservative scope) and The Weekend Review will fulfil the need for reviews.
The Monthly Countdown, Throwback Thursday and Counterpoints will be the go-to editorial series, although most editorials, by definition, won't fit into a prescribed mold of such a heading.  Unreality Companion and WTF will often shift in the role that they serve.  And, as always, new article series are coming that will generally fit into at least one of these categories.

Hopefully this will lead to not just articles of the same quality and frequency that I've been publishing them recently, but of far greater predictability.  It'll further reign in the type of articles I'm writing so that it's not so singularly dominating by any one article type (like it has been lately with news).
The plan now is to use this weekend to catch up on some news items that I didn't get to because of my end-of-week workload, finally finish Phase 1 Revisited: The Incredible Hulk and elaborate on the direction that I intend to take Filmquisition in the immediate future.  Starting Monday, expect to see a whole new approach to the way that I plan and publish articles for this blog.

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