Writing is a demanding activity. There is no right or wrong way to approach this task. In the end, it boils down to is being able to find your own grooves and patterns, but I thought of writing a post with some tips to help you get started.
Tip 1: Find a template
When you are writing a lot, it becomes difficult to start writing from a blank page each time. Having a template in place can help you structure your thoughts as you start writing your first draft. Nicholas Cole’s YouTube video for Prepping the Page includes a template that you may find useful in getting started.
Tip 2: Use a Pomodoro
Pomodoros are great productivity tools that help you to keep track of the time spent on your tasks. Think of writing itself as a task that demands your undivided attention and don't rely solely on your willpower to reach the end.
You can start with one pomodoro and do a brain dump, either on a piece of paper or in an online document. The advantage of dumping the information in an online document is that you can easily transfer over bits and pieces for your first draft.
Tip 3: Outline before your draft
I have written a couple of posts in prose form and edited them later on, but I find that this works better for a writing piece that relies less on structure, like a diary entry.
For any other kind of writing where you are trying to convey information to your audience, it’s better to create an outline, where you can get your points out first. A list-like format helps you keep track of all the information you want to include in your post.
Tip 4: Headings draw attention
When you have headings for your posts, readers can figure out what each section of the post is trying to convey and focus on the key points.
To see the difference that formatting can make, contrast a well-formatted post as opposed to those that reads like a long wall of text. You’ll find it much easier to comprehend information from the well formatted post.
The same logic applies to conveying information to other readers.
Tip 5: Draft first, edit later
Don’t worry about editing your outline or even the first draft. This includes fixing spelling and grammatical errors as well as changing sentence structure.
You should focus on drafting the post based on your outline first and leave the editing to the second phase of your writing. This separation of concern reduces the unnecessary time spent during the writing process.
Tip 6: Pictures speak a thousand words
Include pictures in your blog post that are relevant to what you are trying to say. This is a common technique used in Medium and Dev.to articles. The key though is to find a balance between using pictures to elucidate and removing additional distractions for your reader.
Tip 7: Practice writing more
The nice thing about blogging is that it does not have any prerequisites apart from reading and writing ability. One way to become a better writer is by reading more. However, at the end of the day, you need to hone your writing skill by practising it more often.
Additional References:
Ship 30 for 30: They have a lot of practical and actionable advice to get started. Apart enrolling in their cohort, you can also subscribe to their 10-day email course as well as their Mastery Monday, Roundup Wednesday and Fast-Track Friday email newsletters.
Neel: He started blogging more regularly as a part of month long challenge. Maybe this will inspire to start such a challenge yourself.
Nikolas Goeke: He has been writing for a long time. He provides insights on writing and other things he finds useful. He also runs a course called Write Like a Pro for getting others started with writing.
Top comments (3)
Great article! I also recently discovered Ship 30 for 30 and was thinking of doing something similar for programming, something like WebDev 30 in 30 where I only talk about one small thing in each "atomic" blog post.
Hi Jesus, that's a great idea. Feel free to drop a link to your posts in this comment thread when you do.
Hope this article makes more writers.