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How I Write and Edit My Daily Emails and Podcast Episodes · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, thanks for joining me for today's episode.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Every day my goal is to show up in my readers' inboxes and also my podcast listeners' ears with material that's helpful, interesting, and hopefully as free of errors as possible.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: However, it doesn't happen by accident, as you can guess.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: A few days ago, a friend of mine asked about my process for creating my daily emails, which by extension also means my daily podcast episodes, since my podcasts are based on my emails.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought you might be interested to see how I do it in case there's something useful that you can borrow for your own processes.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got eight things to share here.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: All these are very quick, and I hope that you can take something away from this and apply it to your own writing processes.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, the first thing that I do is I keep a list of email ideas in Scrivener, which is my writing app of choice.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: At the beginning of the week, typically on Monday morning, I decide what the topics for the coming week's emails are going to be, and I sketch out a few notes.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now the daily email topics are generally a mix of reader questions, ideas I think you're going to find interesting, or occasional things that I want to promote.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I just try to mix those up.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I write a draft of the email as fast as I can, and I really try not to edit as I go.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that I do this is because I want to write a complete something, whatever that something is, as fast as I can because mentally I'd rather work on or edit something that is a complete package than just go line by line or paragraph by paragraph and try to make it perfect.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, I do a quick rewrite where I correct typos and grammar errors, I add or delete sentences, and I break up paragraphs when it makes sense to do so.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: My goal with this is to make it cleaner and more readable.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, if I'm promoting something, let's say my podcast or one of my books, then I'll add the link at the end of the email and I will tie the email into whatever I'm promoting so it all makes sense.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, once that's done, I run the email through ChatGPT and I ask it to identify grammar or spelling errors, and then I make those corrections.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now please note that I am not using ChatGPT or other AI to actually write these emails.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I am actually writing the emails.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So just so you know, whenever you hear this podcast or whenever you read my emails, I have actually created those on my own from scratch.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I have not asked AI to write those, but I do use ChatGPT to suggest uh how I can make things a little bit better, if there's anything that I missed, and also what kind of typos or mistakes might be included there.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Once I make those corrections, then number six, I decide on an email subject line, or by extension, it's the same thing as the podcast episode title.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I try to have a mix of subject lines that make you curious versus ones that are more straightforward, like the title of this podcast episode, which is how I write and edit my emails and podcast episodes.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Number seven, then I record my podcast with that material, and I also add a few sentences for show notes that appear on podcast apps.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, just to be clear, as you can guess, I don't strictly stick to the script, so to speak, but I do some riffing here and there when I record these podcast episodes because that's just how I roll and because that's cool.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then I edit the episode if I need, I upload it to BuzzSprout, which is my podcast host, and I schedule the show there as well.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, just a quick note here, I do record the podcast episode before I send out the email because the process of recording the audio helps me catch little typos and other things that I can improve.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Number eight, then I copy and paste the email from Scrivener into Kit, which is my email marketing platform.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I make any further edits and then I send a test email to myself to make sure everything looks okay.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I look at the email both on my desktop computer and on my phone.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I almost always make a couple of tweaks here and there just because there's something I could say a little bit better, or sometimes I'll take out a word or two, or add a word or two, or whatever it is.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then I schedule the email to go out to my list, and that's pretty much it.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the key lesson here that I really want you to hear about this is that the real work in this process is not in writing the first draft.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The real work is in the edits and in the rewriting and in the little tweaks that go through several rounds to make the final product.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I do this even for a short daily email.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: My emails and podcasts might seem simple and easy to listen to, but honestly, it takes a lot of work to make them that way.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would love to hear about your process and how you go from your idea to a finished draft that's ready for publication no matter what you're publishing.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can shoot me a message at Kent at KentSanders.net, and I would love to hear from you.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friend, that's it for today, and I'll see you next time.