Content Creation Series: Writing

Hello and welcome to this week's Content Creation Series.

Today we will be talking about one of my favorite ways to create content… Writing!

A little of storytelling here. I have always loved to write.

My first win was in second grade, when my teacher liked too much a little story I wrote, that she typed it, made questions about it and shared with the class. I was thrilled! I never stop writing, but nothing serious or public. I got internet access, in 2007, I have been blogging, mostly to myself, just for the joy of writing.

In the end 2018 I started to learn how to code, and in the summer of 2019 I went to Codeland, where I watched a talk by Ali Spittel about blogging and it inspired me to start writing on Dev.to.

If you go see my profile there, you can clearly see my evolution as a writer, and how I started gaining confidence.

Slowly but surely. And like Ali inspired me that summer, I want to do the same for you.

- Why write?

I will be honest with you here, I don’t remember much about that talk LOL. But I remember it inspired me and made me start writing, what helped me to be where I am today.

In the beginning I started writing just to record my journey and MAYBE make some friends. Now I write to help and motivate people, to share what I know and still, my journey.

We talked about WHY create content on the first post of this series, so now let’s focus on why to write:

It is probably the simplest content creation format to get started on, thinking about time consumed and resources needed,
You can share with lots of people, that can read it on their pace, easily take notes of what they want to read again later,
You don’t have to expose yourself as much as in other formats.
Writing is also the most accessible way to create content.

So overall, if you want to create content but are not sure where to start, I would recommend start here. Let’s write!

- What to write about and writing formats

The question is… What can I write about? There are already blog posts about EVERYTHING out there! Yes, that is true. But don’t underestimate how your experience, your “voice” and your writing style can make things unique and help other people.

Let’s brainstorm here:

What do you already know?
What You Want to learn about? Why?
What problems have you solved? How did you do it?
What questions do you have?

Answering these questions will give you a few topics to work with. Here is my current list for you to have a better view:

It can be a tutorial, or a list of lessons learned, or just straightforward storytelling.

My first blog post was more like a personal journal entry, were I talked about my life as a programming student. Nowadays I write more technical content, focused on my audience: entry level devs and women in tech.

My writing process:

Let’s talk about the writing process. While it is different for everyone, there are some steps that can benefit most writers. I will share with you MY process and I hope this will help you to come up with yours.

I have a board on notion where I keep track of my writings.
The first column is for ideas. Every time I think about a topic that could become a good blog post, I write that there. The second column is for posts In Process, followed by In Review, Posted and Syndicated.

In Process is for posts I have started Outlining and maybe even writing.

I have an Outlining template that I use every time I start a new post. It contains the elements I want my post to have:

Intro - What will this post be about,
Sections 1, 2 and 3 - Usually I have 3 main points, and each section covers one.
Conclusion - Here I summarized all of the above into a sentence or two.
Call to action - What do I want the reader to do next? For me it usually is to have them come watch me on Twitch.

In Review are posts that are finished but need to be checked.

On this step I also created a cover using Canva.com, run my article on https://hemingwayapp.com/ and make it more readable using markup language editor https://stackedit.io/app#

After I am happy with the steps above, I post it then move it to the Posted column on my board.

The last step is Syndicating my posts. What does that mean? Usually after 2 weeks I posted something, I re-post it with a canonical link on another platform, like Dev.to.

- Checklist

So here are, in a checklist, the steps I take for each blog post:

-Get an idea from my list of ideas,
Outline the post, writing each heading I want it to have,
Starting writing the post, with the headings as guidelines,
After I am done writing, I create a cover on Canva.com,
Use https://hemingwayapp.com to check spelling, working count, and make sure my writing is clear.
Next, I use https://stackedit.io/app# to format it to make it easier to read.
It is time to post!
After 2 weeks or so, re-post in on dev.to or therelicans.com , using a canonical link

Conclusion and a Challenge!

Here you have it! How I write my posts, why I do it and all the tips I can give you to get started writing great content!

I have a challenge for you: Choose a topic you are comfortable with, maybe your journey into tech? Write about it, and post it here on therelicans.com!
Once you are done, share it with me so I can review for you, and give you advice on how and where to improve !

As always, please follow me on Twitch and come hang out with me!
I stream every day, and on Co-working Fridays you can see me writing my posts LIVE!

XOXO,
Pachi