A single module answering 'what should be written next', consumed by both the in-process writer and the subscription writer so they can never drift. It distinguishes finished drafts (inventory) from outline stubs (to-dos), prices every candidate on priorityNow, applies the roadmap stage gate to planned work as strictly as to new work, leaves alone any stub that has already failed twice, and breaks ties toward the human-planned angle.
Also called: content queue · blog backlog order · which post first · up next
- 1isStub() classifies a draft as a to-do if it still carries a plan block or is under 350 words.
- 2Stubs are matched to the universe by their formal bond, or failing that by their target keyword's name, so they can be priced at all.
- 3Fresh keywords are filtered to those not already taken, not already published or ranking, and unlocked at the current stage.
- 4Anything already past its scheduled date is finished first, oldest slot first.
- 5Otherwise the top stub and the top fresh keyword compete on the same priority number; ties go to the stub.
- 6ensureBrief() builds the SERP brief on demand if the winner doesn't have one.
Two failures are recorded in the file. First, the ordering rule: "Stub-first was the original rule and it was wrong here: only 2 of 30 stubs were bonded to a scored keyword, so 28 of them scored zero and would have been written ahead of 8,100/mo terms sitting untouched." Second, the calendar override, quoted in full: "A COMMITTED DATE OUTRANKS A BIGGER KEYWORD (Keith 08-24). Volume decides what to write NEXT; it must not decide whether to honour a date already on the calendar. Before this, it did: a stub scheduled for 20 August sat unwritten while the writer picked fresh high-volume terms three runs in a row, and the publisher held it back six times for being 96 words. The calendar meant nothing because nothing enforced it."
- Two writers with their own selection rules would eventually disagree.
- Outline stubs counted as inventory, so the queue looked permanently full.
- A date on the calendar was ignored in favour of a bigger keyword, repeatedly.
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