Editorial Process
The eight stages between an idea and a published piece, and why most content operations stall at the same one.
Most content operations don't fail at writing. They fail at the stage before it, where a vague idea is supposed to become a specific argument.
Everything downstream suffers. The draft takes three times longer because the writer is still deciding what they think. Review becomes rewriting. Publication slips.
An editorial system is mostly about forcing that decision earlier.
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The eight stages
Research → Notes → Argument → Draft → Review → Publish → Repurpose → Measure
Each stage has an output that the next one needs. Skipping a stage doesn't save time; it moves the work to a stage where it's more expensive.
1 · Research
Gathering, not deciding. Sources, data, examples, existing coverage, what your audience already asks.
Output: material in one place, with sources attached.
The failure: research that never ends. Set a limit — a time box or a number of sources — and stop.
2 · Notes
Processing the research into your own words. Not quotes — what you think about the quotes.
Output: written observations, each linked back to its source.
The failure: skipping it. Going straight from reading to drafting means writing while still assembling, which is why drafts take so long.
3 · Argument
The stage that gets skipped, and the one that determines everything.
Before writing, state in one or two sentences: what is this piece claiming, and why should anyone believe it?
If you can't, you aren't ready to draft. Not because of a rule — because you'll spend the draft working it out, in prose, at ten times the cost.
Output: a one-paragraph statement of the argument, plus an outline of how it's supported.
The test: could someone else write a reasonable version of this piece from the outline alone? If not, it's a list of topics rather than an argument.
4 · Draft
With the argument settled, drafting is execution.
Output: a complete draft, start to finish, including the bits you're unsure about.
The failure: editing while writing. It makes both slower. Get to the end first.
5 · Review
Three distinct passes, which many people collapse into one and then do badly.
| Pass | Question |
|---|---|
| Structural | Is the argument sound, in the right order, with nothing missing? |
| Line | Is each sentence clear and necessary? |
| Factual | Is everything stated true, and is every source real? |
Do them in that order. Line-editing a section you later delete is wasted work.
The factual pass is non-negotiable for anything with claims, numbers or citations. One invented statistic costs more credibility than a year of good writing earns.
6 · Publish
Mechanical and checkable, which means it belongs in a procedure.
Formatting, metadata, images, links, categories, preview, schedule. A checklist, not a judgement call.
The failure: treating it as trivial. The most common content error isn't a bad argument — it's a broken link, a missing image, or a post that looks wrong on a phone.
7 · Repurpose
Decided at planning, not as an afterthought.
One long piece can become a newsletter section, several short posts, a video outline, an answer to a recurring question. Decide which before writing, because it changes how you structure the original.
The failure: intending to repurpose and never doing it. If it isn't a scheduled step with an owner, it won't happen.
8 · Measure
Not vanity numbers. Whichever of these matter to you:
- Did people finish it?
- Did it generate enquiries, replies, or subscribers?
- Does it still bring traffic three months later?
- Did it answer a question you were tired of answering?
Output: a short note on the piece's record, so the next planning round has evidence rather than impressions.
The board
One place where every piece sits in one stage. The simplest version works:
Idea → Researching → Argument → Drafting → Review → Ready → Published
For each card: owner, target date, stage, and the one-line argument once it exists.
Rules that keep it honest:
- One owner per piece
- A limit on how many can sit in Drafting at once — three is plenty for most teams
- Anything that hasn't moved in two weeks gets a decision: continue, park, or kill
- Killing ideas is normal and healthy
Where to automate
| Worth automating | Leave manual |
|---|---|
| Moving a card when a stage completes | The argument stage |
| Reminders on stale pieces | Review |
| Publication checklist generation | Deciding what to write |
| Distribution after publishing | Repurposing decisions |
| Collecting performance data | Judging whether it worked |
The pattern: automate the moving and the remembering, not the thinking.
Realistic cadence
Consistency beats volume. One good piece a month, every month, outperforms four pieces in January and nothing until June.
Set the cadence from your slowest stage, not your most optimistic. If research reliably takes two weeks, a weekly cadence will fail.
Build a buffer. Two finished pieces ahead means an interrupted week doesn't break the schedule.
Signs the process isn't working
- Drafts that stall and are never finished
- Pieces published without review because of the deadline
- Nobody able to say what's coming next month
- Repurposing that was planned and never happened
- The same idea discussed repeatedly without being written or killed
The first one almost always traces back to stage 3.
If you can't state the argument in one paragraph, you aren't ready to draft. Everything downstream is paying for that decision.
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