Setting strong roots to succeed at technical writing

I recently took part in a Hashnode Bootcamp on technical writing, which inspired me to think about what actually makes developers good at writing💡

I tried to think about the approach I had taken in other areas, like programming and learning a second language, and that brought three questions to mind:

1) What's my motivation?

2) What challenges am I facing?

3) How is my current process and how can I improve it?

The motivation

When I think about the teachers I've most admired, they all had a driving purpose: sharing or facilitating knowledge. I think this is the ultimate goal of all humans. Having a clear motivation will keep you going, even if the results aren't initially as intended.

The challenge

Technical writing has the same components of any communication: a message, receptor, transmitter, and channel. Each one of those is a world of its own. The message requires making yourself understood. The receptor is your audience, who you must also understand well

The challenge - part 2

As writers, we are the transmitters of the message – therefore it's important to develop a voice, pace and style in order to communicate clearly. Finally, the channel is whatever medium you settle on, e.g. Memo'd or Hashnode. (This should be the easy part.)

We can tackle the first three parts of the challenges through observation, studying (courses, bootcamps, guides), and practice. I recommend this article by Edidiong Asikpo as well as vue documentation, which is a good example of balancing code with a simple message.

Improving

Knowing that you're connecting with an audience is important... because once we reach our current goal, there'll be others (another article, another project). That's the cycle of life. Improving requires patience, good habits, but also a feedback loop to stay motivated.

When I reflect on my creative process, three questions /targets come up:

1) When? Pick a publishing rate (x per month) and commit to it.

2) How? Plan ahead, take better notes, and organize that knowledge, e.g. using Notion or Memo'd.

3) What? This one's harder than it sounds.

Chris Bongers from the Hashnode Bootcamp gave the following tips on finding what to write about:

-Your struggles

-Your knowledge

-Your experiences

-The last thing you Googled

-The last event you attended

-Advice you'd give to the you of 5 years ago

Bottom line: any developer looking to improve at technical writing needs to do the following...

-Never forget your motivation.

-Don't wait to be perfect. Be open to improving steadily.

-Tweak and reinforce your process until you find your flow.