Storyboards are visual aids generally used when creating a movie. They lay out the major action within different scenes of the film and make a movie look like a graphic novel while in its pre-production stage. This helps the director and cinematographer plan out the various shots needed to make an interesting and well thought out film that is unified in its presentation and has scenes that work only to push the movie forward.
So what does that have to do with a blog? Have you ever thought of your blog as a graphic novel or movie, with each post as its own scene within the overall ‘movie’? Or even thought of each post as its own mini film in a series of shorts? You can easily do so by drawing out some rudimentary panels (representing your individual posts or categories) on a whiteboard and adding to it occasionally. It doesn’t have to be very complex and you don’t have to be an artist to achieve the desired effect. There are some very compelling reasons to do this including:
Storyboards can keep a blog focused: If you have a business blog then you have a single, unified purpose for blogging. But within that purpose there are a lot of small, offshooting topics that may seem unrelated to the umbrella purpose. If you storyboard your blog, you can figure out how to keep all topics united and relatable to others so that you present a collective experience to your readers rather than a frenetic disarray of opposing themes.
A storyboard can help flesh out the climactic point of each post: If you are attempting to effect social change, professional growth or other compelling movement with your blog, then you need an exciting climax within each post that gets your readers moving and works to the collective message. By storyboarding your individual posts as well as your overall blog you can help to figure out the most compelling points for the climax and you can plan the post-by-post build-up to them so that they will have the most impact possible and not just get lost in the overall noise of the blog.
Storyboards can help your blog posts work together to move the blog forward: Your blog is going to grow professionally as you do. With a storyboard, you can make sure that all your posts work toward that growth in a sensible way that makes it easy for your readers to not only witness the growth but to also enjoy it with you. Your storyboard can help you map out the best time and way to create these posts to accomplish your goal.
A storyboard can help you explore different angles of your post: Sometimes, looking at something in a different way than you are used to helps you see your point of view and others differently. When you create a storyboard for your blog or posts it can help you anticipate criticisms that others may have and help you refute other points of view within each post in an efficient way.
Remember, your storyboard doesn’t have to be stick figure drawings relating to your posts, it can simply be a visual resource to direct your blog. This can consist of something as simple as a flowchart. As long as you have a changeable visual element directing your blog you will have better control, clearer communication and more consistency.