Origami comics

Organizing your writings

Your content’s organization and structure can determine how easy it is to create and update your site.

Example 1
posts/
  2027/
    07/
      04/
        index.md
        pond.jpeg
      07/
        cabin.jpeg
        index.md
Example 2
images/
  cabin.jpeg
  pond.jpeg
posts/
  Hello from the pond.md
  Tiny home.md
  • There are many ways to organize text and images for a blog.
  • Your strategy determines how quickly you can add new content and find old content.

Before diving in, consider…

Question 1: How will you uniquely identify each piece of writing?

Files with dates
posts/
  2027-07-04.md
  2027-07-07.md
  2027-07-10.md
Files with titles
posts/
  Cozy.md
  Hello from the pond.md
  Tiny home.md
  • Each post or other thing you write will typically need a unique ID called a slug.
  • The slug can appear in a page’s URL to signal to your audience what’s on that page.
  • A slug can reflect a file’s name, metadata, body text, and position in the folder structure.
  • You can use a mix of tactics: a file name that includes both date and title, say.

Question 2: Realistically, how frequently will you add content?

Deep structure
posts/
  2027/
    07/
      04/
        index.md
    08/
      13/
        index.md
    09/
      01/
        index.md
    10/
      29/
        index.md
Flat structure
posts/
  2027-07-04 Hello from the pond.md
  2027-08-13 Tiny home.md
  2027-09-01 Cozy.md
  2027-10-29 Reading.md
  • Flat folders are easier to navigate; deep structures keep many files organized.
  • The structure should reflect your pace; the left structure here is overkill.
  • You can have a blend, e.g. folders by year, file names with month and day.
  • Some people post more than once a day — most don’t.

Question 3: Will your writing have accompanying images or other media?

Images together with text
posts/
  2027/
    07/
      04/
        Hello from the pond.md
        pond.jpeg
      07/
        cabin.jpeg
        Tiny home.md
      10/
        Cozy.md
        interior.jpeg
Images and text separate
images/
  cabin.jpeg
  interior.jpeg
  pond.jpeg
posts/
  Cozy.md
  Hello from the pond.md
  Tiny home.md
  • The left arrangement keeps each image in a folder with the text file that references it, so it’s clear what goes with what — but maybe a little harder to navigate.
  • The arrangement on the right separates image and text files — a flatter structure appropriate if you only occasionally have images, or manage your images with an image library tool.

Read more: A model for thinking about turning your writing into a site

  Comic index