SteeveThis article finishes my challenge of 30 articles in 30 days... however due to unexpected life events, it took me two months to finish.
The goal was to improve my technical writing skills, but I learned way more! Let's dive into it:
1. Even if you scheduled, when you post isn't important.
Focus on the quality of your content, that's how you bring valuable knowledge, and thoughts to readers. We are on DEV to learn, let's make the best writing you are proud of, who's going to help thousand of people. That's the reason why it took me 2 months to finish 30 articles.
The second reason was because I had important life responsibilities, and days are not long enough (and the human energy is limited).
Now I keep in my mind that for every project in my life requires twice as much time as I had orinigally planned.
2. Done is better than perfect
There's always room for improvements, but it will never be perfect. Before starting writing, define a time limit: If you pass more than X days or X hours, post that dam article now!
Before publishing, send the link to friends to get a feedbacks. If needed, make one or two revisions maximum, then post it.
3. Subject first
Bring the main topic on the table as soon as possible with a small introduction. Don't waste too much time on the intro/context, or the reader won't stay.
4. Easy code reproduction
Prepare the minimum required code to reproduce what you are talking about. If the project is bigger, prepare a Github repository.
5. Visual Content is key
Include visual content to make your reader learn, stay, and be engaged. Between each chunk of text, add one of the following element:
- Interactive Demos
- GIFs
- Diagrams
- Whiteboard doddle
- Embed Code Preview (CodeSandbox, JSFiddle, CodePen)
Learn more about visual content on my previous article: Elevate your writings with Visual Content
6. Prepare the article title and the image cover before writing.
Working on the title and image cover will make you think of the overall ideas and topics you will cover.
The title is the door of your article, if the door is not compelling, it won't bring much people. Make this door the most beautiful door representing the palace behind it. A good title is:
- An accurate summary of the content
- Concice
- Including relevant keywords (Don't make a clickbait title with super hyped words)
- Professional (with a tone of fun tho)
For a good image cover, you can use:
- Image stocks, such as Pexel (free) or Unsplash (Free)
- Create a banner with Canva (Free)
- Use a text to image AI, such as Adobe Firefly, or Dall-E, or Midjourney (Not free)
7. Keep writing even if it's hard
Keep writing without looking at the number of Views, Comments, or Subs: it will make you feel bad if you expect something. It's ok to write about a super niche subject, even if you get zero engagements for days.
Keep writing because it will stimulates your creativity with new ideas.
Keep writing even if it's 11pm and you had a tough day, because it's going to pay off and you'll be proud. We are on a marathon, not a sprint: your article will help people in the future.
In 2019, I posted my second article on DEV, and I had almost no view and zero comments. One year later, I received this comment:
Now, five years later, the article has +800 views.
8. Be active on the DEV community
Look at the last or best articles on Dev.to, it will give you ideas, or improvements you can include in your future articles! Don't forget to like and write a comment to give a feedback: Giving valuable critical comments will make people come back to you.
Just spread positive comments, spread love!
9. Be part of a group
To fuel your mind with new ideas, be part of a group with similar goals and make regular calls. They will be available to give you feedbacks anytime.
10. Don't be serious
Make this writing journey as fun as possible, be eccentric, be weird, or playful: it will increase your creativity, your motivation, and the process to learn will be easier.
Conclusion
It was difficult challenge to write 30 articles in a row, and I had to step back many projects to fully focus on writing.
Now I'm going to write only one article per week, and I can start my next challenge: start writing scripts and recording videos about technical subjects :D
Have a great day and cheers 🍻
I'm amazed this got no love from the dev.to community.