How to master the art of technical writing?
Table of contents
Just imagine a world without documentation for code!
Communication is the most important element of coding. It's an essential skill for mastering the art of technical writing. Writing helps you understand better what you think you know.
How, you ask me?
Well, when we are coding we are communicating with our system in a language it understands so that it can do what we want it to do.
Now, how do we convey to people what our code does?
We have two options: 1. verbal & 2. written.
Let's think about verbal communication. What comes to our mind could be
a situation where we are explaining the functionality of some code that we had written or how we fixed a bug to a friend or a few colleagues.
when a person explains a concept through a video tutorial. Apart from that, there are other possibilities like a podcast (I'm yet to listen to a technical podcast).
So within verbal communication, we could categorize it as scripted & unscripted.
In the above examples, the first one is more unscripted since even though we might prepare for such a situation it would be more like winging it. Being able to convey your thoughts at the moment is a skill to be learned & practiced like any other skill.
The second example is much more like the scripted version, although one would go with the flow when it comes to recording. Editing is a critical skill when it comes to scripted verbal communication.
Why have I gone astray with mentioning verbal communication?
There are a few points that are in common with written communication when it comes to the approach to communication.
If you are someone who's starting, you need to figure out a balance between quantity & quality. How much you write matters over perfection. Over time, you need to focus more on quality over quantity.
Being authentic is key, be yourself, that way you won't get tired of what you are doing.
Initially write about general topics, it doesn't matter if it's something someone has already covered. Gradually, you can take up content that is appealing to you, learn about it, work on it, and share your learnings. What matters is how it's explained by you.
Initially build an audience around your content. Once you get a hold of things, aim for variety.
Most importantly, be consistent. Set strict deadlines within which you have to publish your content & make sure to stick to them.
How do you get your audience?
If you are starting to form an audience, the first thought would be to reach out to family & friends. Ask them to engage themselves & also to share in their network.
However, you'll have to network a whole lot by yourself to get your audience. Make the best use of your social handles across LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Meta.
An interesting option is to collaborate with others to get a wider reach.
Make use of tools such as typefully & hypefury to analyze your tweets & get better reach.
Where do you share your content?
Explore different options to see what best fits you & your audience.
Share your learnings as a thread of tweets on Twitter.
Blog your tech journey & share them across socials.
Help out open source projects with their documentation.
Publish content across platforms like hashnode, medium & substack.
Personal Branding
Keep a professional, clean photograph as your display picture, it helps give the best first impression.
Be specific in who you are or what you want to be.
If you realize it's time to get serious & up the game, then ask a specialist for review & recommend updates to your online presence.
Important Tips
Read extensively. Follow people whom you admire in your field & engage with their content to reiterate back your understanding as feedback to enhance your value. This also helps you keep up to date on tech.
Mix it up by exploring different topics, and coding rather than just sticking to writing. Don't slog on for several hours when you are not in the mood. You don't procrastinate if it's something that you love doing. Don't take it up as a chore but rather as a hobby.
Make sure to be polite when pointing out mistakes & suggestions. Fully avoid negatives, and don't engage with them to get upset or end up giving them the reach.
Write when motivation hits, and aim for the long hours in this period. Keep a backlog of ideas. Write down your thoughts & edit at the end. Read through several times to make sure you are conveying your thoughts & keep it concise. Experiment & figure out the right schedules on when to write.
Make use of headers, sub-headers, and bullet points instead of long paragraphs. Include quotes, and informatics that help the audience to engage & understand better. Use humor, and bring variety to your content.
Key points
Learn in public, and be helpful without expecting anything in return.
When you are starting off if you are feeling a little uncomfortable that means you are getting out of your comfort zone & exploring. Be active & engaging.
Learn something new, tweet about it, create projects on it, open source them, document the process into a blog & create a video showing how to do all this.
Be good at one tech stack, then mix things up to create something new.
Explore taking up options of lesser pay for lesser work so that you give more value & take away more with you as well.
Thank you for reading! This article contains my takeaways from the 3 days of hashnode bootcamp on how to master the art of technical writing. #HashnodeBootcamp