The King himself

Stephen King is a machine. Since publishing his first novel in 1973, King has written more than 60 full length novels and over 200 short stories. His bibliography is massive, his output prolific. He’s a household name, a cultural institution with hundreds of millions of book sales to his name.

To the outsider just looking in, you’d have to assume that Stephen King is a workaholic obsessive who has spent every minute of the past 40 years writing like it was his last day on Earth.

But, like many assumptions, that would be dead wrong. Stephen King might be one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century, but he’s never worked a day past 5 pm since taking up the pen professionally.

Of course, it could just be that he writes really fast, right? That his 8 hours of writing a day might be worth twice, or three times as much as the next persons. After all, this is the master of the macabre we’re talking about here! Have you read The Stand? That doorstopper clocks in at over 1000 pages. Clearly this is a man who can blitz through pages like a box of tissues during ragweed season.

Wrong again. Stephen King writes at a steady, but not blistering  pace. Instead of aiming to rip through pages, he has a daily goal of writing just 2000 words. A goal he almost always easily finishes before 5 pm. Frequently he’s done much earlier in the day, sometimes knocking off around lunch, job well done.

Consistency is more important than inspiration

The key to Stephen King’s phenomenal output isn’t an obsessive commitment to writing into the wee hours of the morning, or some kind of superhuman dexterity - it’s consistency. King may only set out to write 2000 words a day, but he makes sure to hit them rain, shine, or meteor shower.  

Now, you may not be looking to become a world famous horror writer, but you can still learn from King’s example.

First we need to recognize that you don’t need to perform any heroics to get the job done, you just need to be consistent. This is the most important element to King’s success, and it's the most important element to a successful blog. A blog updated every few months isn’t going to move the needle no matter how well-written and interesting the posts are. You need a steady stream of content that will attract a steady stream of eyeballs.

Being consistent with a blogging schedule is more important than being brilliant or world changing. For a small business, setting a goal to have one blog written every week is a decent target. But, you need to make sure you’re hitting it, no matter what else is going on.

But thankfully, that might be easier than you think. Just like Stephen King, we need to detangle the idea of quantity over quality. King focuses on 2000 words a day, which may seem like a lot to a regular person who might only write a few email a day, but for a professional writer (especially one as universally celebrated as King), 2000 words is a fairly modest goal.

Similarly, you don’t need to write a blog that reads like a novella every week. Don’t set out every week to write a huge article that will completely change how people think about your business, instead, focus on more manageable goals. Consistently producing a 500 word blog every week will do better for you in the long run than occasionally posting a massive slab of text.

Small steps, big results

When creating blogs for your website, look at what Stephen King has accomplished. You don’t need to become a hermit or be touched by the muse to create great content. What you need is a set of realistic goals and the discipline to stick with them. If you aim to write a 500 word blog every week for a year and stick with it, you’ll see results.