By far, the most received question from people is what the secret to my writing process is?
- How are you able to write every day?
- How do you come up with topics?
- Etc..
Spoiler: There is no secret
But let me guide you through a couple of things I do to make my life easier.
1. Use Notion to keep track of articles
I'm a big fan of Notion, by far the best Note app I've ever used.
Why? Because they use a database.
For my blog, I'm just using one sheet.
It looks like this:
What you see here is one a Notion table.
I only keep track of the following values.
- Name
- Date
- Status (ToDo/Doing/Done)
- Image (Yes/No)
- Mailchimp (Yes/No)
- Link
Obviously, there is a massive backlog of past articles, and every time an idea pops in my head, I create an entry.
Sometimes I write a little description or link to a source. This helps me generate a backlog of ideas.
I mostly only write one day in advance, but sometimes when I have some spare time, I write blogs upfront for a rainy day.
2. Write about your learnings
"How do you find topics to write about?"
Think about this question as: What are you looking for yourself?
If I need to Google something, even the simplest thing, I write it down. This not only helps me brand it in my brain, but it's also another article that can help someone else looking for that exact same issue.
Another way to do this: Define what you want to learn.
For instance: "I want to learn Azure App Services".
Okay, first, we need to define what the elements we need to learn and break it up in small doable tasks per day.
This makes us learn full topics, but not overwhelm us.
And by doing so, we can document our learnings again!
As you see, it's as hard or easy as you make it for yourself.
3. Make use of content checking tools
One thing I do want to mention, English is not my native tongue. I know some of your probably cringe after reading some of my sentences. But I try to do the best I can.
In this effort, I use a paid subscription to Grammarly to help with grammar checks' very basics.
And I make use of Hemmingway to check if certain sentences are not over the top.
4. Have fun, doing the above
Don't write if you don't like to write!
Please, nobody is asking you to be a blogger. If you don't like it, just don't do it. Find other ways to express your knowledge.
- Create video's if that's your thing
- Become a mentor
- Create an open source project
- Create awesome Codepens
There are many ways to be active without blogging. Pick your poison.
You see, no secrets
It's all about having fun in what you do and writing about topics you want to read.
Don't expect magic. If you start writing, nobody knows you.
Even now, we are 201 articles and days into blogging.
I'm not famous. I'm not making money, I do not have stable pageviews.
If you are that person, inspired to write, learn, and become better; Share your blog with me!
Thank you for reading, and let's connect!
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Top comments (12)
Thanks Chris! Will be checking out Notion to organize my content ideas.
I like that you mentioned about having fun. Writing blog posts may not provide any monetary rewards, but I do feel a sense of pride and happiness in creating something that I am proud of, sometimes after 3-5 hours of writing, polishing and finally publishing them to the web.
Definitely it's not just blogging, we can also spend our time on many other creative processes that make us feel fulfilled. For one, I used to learn pencil drawing for pure interest and a simple drawing can take up days on end (1-2hrs per day). It always started with a little excitement, then came the dreadful process of enduring the thoughts of "this looks ugly" "This is not the way I want it to look" "That's far from completion", after which a little delight in seeing something coming together and finally the enormous WOW moment of "Did I really draw this? That looks unbelievably decent..to me! "
Today, I received the 16 week streak badge on DEV. 16 weeks of consistent writing, that's definitely a small win for me! Writing articles was my new year resolution for 2020 and for over half a year, I hesitated to begin. Now, I am proud to say that this is probably one of the best decisions I ever made this year and will always look back to this moment for inspiration and motivation.
Cheers!
That's amazing!
I resonate with your comment, I have this in writing but also drawing or working out.
It's all things you have to have fun in, else it's not worth doing them.
People ask me how can I become a blogger and earn money, and I have no idea
I don't even make money with it, and it's not my intention.
I just love to do it, and it's my way of learning
as for drawing goes, I'm converting to iPad drawing but it's such a difference, so keep thinking, damn why doesn't it just look good haha.
We got it 😆 Thanks for your content!
Haha thanks I guess 😂
Funny: in my native language words “language” and ”tongue” are also the same 😉
Oh really haha? What language is that?
Russian 🇷🇺
Nice post Chris! The best articles come from personal experiences, so No. 2 on the list would be my favorite. And lastly No. 4 cause the whole idea of doing anything.
Thanks for sharing!
Your welcome Luis, glad you like it
It's definitely about the experience, in the widest of the word.
Great content Chris! Well done 🐱💻
Thanks Bobby! Glad you like it.
Thank you, will do 😂