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Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

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31–40 of 63 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#31

Don't over-think it. Jot down several bullet points that you want to talk to, and just write as best you can to those points (without re-writing any of it). Go over it once for any grammatical errors. Next step: post it. Unless it's something like a thesis, I wouldn't worry about perfecting it. You'll learn more (and get feedback sooner) if you just get it out there and focus on the fact that your next article will b…

I would suggest “don’t post it!” Go back to it the next day and read it. Anything sounds awkward? Then edit it. For me the balance is in the number of edits. You can post it after your first edit or you can repeat the cycle a few more times.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#32
One of the difficult parts of learning by blogging is that you rarely receive thoughtful feedback from your readers on the craft of your writing. You can look at analytics and comments to see which of your posts are popular, but nobody ever says, "Oh, this post would have worked better had your sentence structure been less repetitive."

I solved this problem by hiring a freelance editor from Upwork.[0] It was a few hundred dollars to have her read a few of my articles. The high-level feedback was extremely helpful and had a huge impact on my readership almost instantly.

Obviously, it's not a magic bullet. I still had to do the work of integrating her feedback and continuing to find ways to improve my writing. But like anything else, expert feedback helps you grow faster than just learning on your own through trial and error.

[0] https://mtlynch.io/editor/

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#33
Find 3-5 bloggers you really like.

Write out why you like their style and structure. Break it apart and look for patterns you can use as a framework.

Ideally you'll have 2-3 frameworks to start and that helps immensely with getting over the initial writers block and structuring your thoughts.

Write the first 20 posts and then worry about making it more complex after that!

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#34
“Hamburger” writing is an easy way to structure writing even if you deviate from it significantly.

https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/strategy_...

This is for your entire blog post, but also each individual paragraph. Add an introduction and conclusion, then build out and expand each section.. then you’re done.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#35
Some writers find "beta readers" to give them feedback. (Think of how often Paul Graham's essays thank multiple people by name "for reading drafts of this.")

Forum comments on the topic can help you learn how to talk about a particular topic. Like I sometimes talk or write about housing issues and "affordable housing" is a buzz word that means a particular thing to a lot of people and what they hear is not what I am trying to say. So I went looking for other phrases and began thinking about what I want people to hear and began just avoiding that term most of the time.

Writing for pay can be an enormous growth experience that can help discipline you to focus more on what other people want or what the parameters need to be and get out of that mindset of just kind of talking to yourself, only in writing.

It can help to start blurbs and to work on it over time. If you put it away and read it again at a later date and stop and go "Wait a minute. I just interpreted that sentence as X and I know I really meant to convey Y." then you think about "How do I really say Y?"

It can help to find online tools of various sorts that give you feedback on your writing, like: http://www.hemingwayapp.com/

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#36
The way to become a good writer is much like one becomes better at any skill. You attempt the skill, and then you review and revise, or get feedback from others and revise based on that. You suck at first, it will be awkward, but you get better through practice. Sports, coding, soft skills, writing, it's all possible, but you may feel dumb or bad at it in the beginning. That's good, that means you are learning.

The first thing you need to consider is your fundamental thesis, the big high level idea you want to convey. You may not know at the beginning, or maybe it's just, "there's this interesting thing!" Honestly that's a fine thesis. You may also find, as you write, that your thoughts clarify and your thesis changes or develops. It's okay if not though, sometimes you just want to talk about the way something is cool to you.

Now you have to consider your audience. Who do you want to read your work? Is it for kids? for adults? for developers? For developers with kids? Maybe you aren't sure, and that's okay, but thinking about who you want to read it will give you a better sense of how to write, what metaphors or similes are useful, etc. Keep in mind your audience as you reread what you write imagine them reading it. What parts are boring? What parts would they be less likely to understand?

Now you need to develop your thesis. The way you do that is you share ideas related to, or that are aspects of, your thesis, and then you provide evidence for them.

One thing to consider in doing this, if you feel like your content isn't structured well, is maintaining a consistent level of detail returning to it after going down a step or two. I feel that one to two levels below your central thesis is enough. You might break your thesis into topics and those are sections or chapters. Or maybe they are paragraphs.

For example if you are talking about python abstractly, say generators, you might provide a real example, discuss why you use a generator for that, then go another level down to give example code, but you probably shouldn't talk about python byte code, C, assembly etc.

If you want to practice, I find a good place is open source documentation for stuff that lacks sufficient documentation, and there is the potential for feedback built-in and your practice also generates something useful. You can also write book reviews on good reads, write emails or letters to friends and colleagues.

But yeah, I'm told I'm a skillful writer, and maybe that's true and the way I got there wasn't a coach. It was basically reading a lot as a kid, and then writing a lot. I'm still not sure I'm all that good, but I don't worry much about being a good writer. Maybe it's crap work, but hey, it's done. Done is better than perfect, as the old saying goes.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#39

Slate Star Codex is, in my opinion, one of the best blogs on the internet, and this post seems like exactly the kind of advice that you're asking for: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/02/20/writing-advice/

I disagree, let me explain, I understand why you say that, certainly the topics are interesting and the comments too, but everything is else is catered to a very specific niche. If you want to go after that segment then great, but if you want to be read by a wider part of the public you would do well in avoiding that style. Dense,verbose, humorless,faux-authoritative(I know the guys is a MD, but that gives him expertise at best on medical issues). I suspect your typical HN reader may like it, but for the rest of the population? Not so much.r/SneerClub in reddit can be mean most of the time, but from time to time they hit the nail on the head with its criticism of SSC.

Re: Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

#40
Can you post your current work ? Like what does a Google search for "how to write/structure an essay" return and why did it not work for you. Its highly possible that SEO poisoning ensured that you just found useless nonsense on Google but it would still help to know. My go to place for such things is usually Coursera / Udacity / Open Culture.
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