🤫 The secret to my writing process

That's a good reminder to tidy up my writing approach. Currently just starting a Google Doc with an idea and put in a folder to do when I get around to it... Not ideal :/

Chris Bongers5y ago

Well Peter, whatever works for you. I mean it's what makes your life easier.

Dinys Monvoisin5y ago

Hahaha, for I have my ideas scattered in my note app on my phone and on my PC I stored them in plain text because I like writing with Vim.

I have a question, when do you know an article is ready to ship? Sometimes, I see that your article is relatively short, for me, I ensure it has at least 400 words or above.

Peter Thaleikis5y ago

Well, it kinda doesn't and I haven't found the time to address it Chris Bongers. Hence your post was a good reminder to make time.

Peter Thaleikis5y ago

I guess you wanted to ask Chris, Dinys Monvoisin. I still take the liberty to jump in with my thoughts: I usually consider it finished when I got my core idea across. And my proof-reader approved haha.

Dinys Monvoisin5y ago

Having the core idea across can be arguable 😅, how would you know? lol Peter Thaleikis

Peter Thaleikis5y ago

Well, it's naturally arguable Dinys Monvoisin. It's something for you to make a call on. If you think covered it that's it. If not, then you can't say it's done.

I also don't feel bad about adding stuff later on. Luckily articles aren't static ;)

Chris Bongers5y ago

Dinys Monvoisin I write the articles to ship.

It's not about writing 400 or 1000 or 100 words. It's about making sure the topics are covered.

I never was a person who can write long stories, just straight to the point. And that's fine for me.

The short articles explain one specific thing, and that's it :D

Peter Thaleikis5y ago

Getting to the point is a good skill when it comes to writing online Chris Bongers

Vignesh M5y ago

Screenshot from 2020-10-05 13-15-53.png I'm using notion too, this is a weekly overview from my blog backlog database.

Chris Bongers5y ago

Wow nice, love the visual overview you have going on here. 🤟

Vignesh M5y ago

Chris Bongers Yeah I write posts directly in Notion and then will paste them in hashnode once I'm done editing.

Ameen5y ago

I use notion too .. its pretty good

Chris Bongers5y ago

Awesome! Notion is really the best notes app by a long shot.

Skay5y ago

Chris Bongers.. you won't believe how similar our processes are and our timelines match closely with respect to when we started writing... I also started writing in March... I've not written 200 articles of course, but somewhere around 35 I think...

But, the process is very similar. I also maintain a blog ideas spreadsheet in Notion and I use Grammarly for spell check, overall grammar, etc. While I really want to write more articles, I'm always super hard-pressed for time. But, I'm going to take inspiration from your post and try to write at least 2 posts per week.. and then slowly increase it to 3 posts...

I have recently been contacted by Educative.io based on my blog articles, to create a course for them on ES6 & Webpack. It's still under the early stages of discussion, but, I'll be super happy if the opportunity materializes... fingers-crossed :-)

Chris Bongers5y ago

Hi Skay!

Nice to see it's so similar. I must say I'm very privileged where my partner is understanding of the blog and my work schedule gave me enough time to write.

If I would have kids it would have been impossible!

Just starting my new job already makes it more difficult to plan around.

How cool that you got your first-course opportunity! Wishing you all the best with that!

Skay5y ago

Chris Bongers - Thank you so much... True that, kids and family do tend to set your priorities... but I'm glad, that I'm part of a great community and I'm still getting to learn from talented folks...

I've also started my job hunt, it's just crazy... job hunt, some freelance work, kid, and a writing opportunity. But, leaving all that, my heart really wants is to sit down and pen a tech blog...

Well, I'm hoping with proper planning, I'll be able to do justice to a few things if not all. Thanks for your wishes and keep your blog articles coming :-)

Chris Bongers5y ago

Skay Awesome, we will just keep up the great work!

I too hope to one day make this sustainable (the tech writing/content)

Who knows right!

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Daily Dev Tips

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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:

My notion process

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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Comments (6)

I use notion too .. its pretty good

More from this blog

1. Use Notion to keep track of articles

2. Write about your learnings

3. Make use of content checking tools

4. Have fun, doing the above

You see, no secrets

Thank you for reading, and let's connect!