Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to learn writing blog posts?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 63 posts

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

#41

Post by CGamesPlay »

mtlynch wrote: post #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 hu…

Loved this post and am reading through some other posts on the site. Do you do the diagrams/images yourself? I'm talking about these kind [0] but I'm also interested in the cover images on the posts.

[0] https://mtlynch.io/painless-web-app-testing/#a-reusable-patt...

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

#42

Post by mindcrime »

throw0101a wrote: post #26
mindcrime wrote: post #6

I don't think learning to write blog posts is particularly different from learning to write anything else. To the extent that that is true, I'd refer you to Stephen King's book On Writing [1]. Specifically, one bit of advice from that book (loosely paraphrased) "the best way to learn to write well is to read a lot and write a lot". The other book I'd recommend is The Pyramid Principle [2] by Barbara Minto. [1]: https…

The sci-fi author Jerry Pournelle used to say that the first 1,000,000 words you write will not be very good. He was not alone: > David Eddings, an American novelist who was most famous for his epic fantasy books, once gave the following advice to new writers: > “My advice to the young writer is likely to be unpalatable in an age of instant successes and meteoric falls. I tell the neophyte: Write a million words–the…

Unless HN comments count towards the 1e6, I need to get cracking. I don't know my word count for blog / technical stuff, but I'm reasonably sure it's nowhere near a million.

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

#43

Post by jimmygrapes »

mindcrime wrote: post #6

I don't think learning to write blog posts is particularly different from learning to write anything else. To the extent that that is true, I'd refer you to Stephen King's book On Writing [1]. Specifically, one bit of advice from that book (loosely paraphrased) "the best way to learn to write well is to read a lot and write a lot". The other book I'd recommend is The Pyramid Principle [2] by Barbara Minto. [1]: https…

While I and many others have issues with King's apparent inability to end a story and his editors' not saying "no" enough, one thing I have actively noticed in his writing is that I never get hung up on overuse specific words or phrases. For a counter example, Frank Herbert's earlier works had the phrase "shoots a glance" so many times that I ended up being focused on counting those rather than the story. I also tend to notice when an author uses a specific term more than their peers, such as Dan Simmons and his use of) "lapiz lazuli" rather than just saying "blue". It's fine to use, but it stands out to me in ways that cause me to pause my reading and acknowledge the term consciously, rather than keep the narrative flow in my head.

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

#44

Post by invider »

softwaredoug wrote: post #18

Write for your future self. Ask what is most essential for future you to know or remember about the topic once you’ve forgotten what you know now. So when you go to google the problem, you may end up landing back at your own blog. There are other people probably similar enough to “future you” to also engage with what you write. But if they don’t appreciate it, then forget them, they’re not the primary audience anyway…

This is great advice. Thanks for sharing.

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

#45

Post by invider »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/088278v5.full.pdf is broadly applicable to technical writing. The C-C-C scheme outlined there is excellent . I strongly recommend the active voice.

Interesting read. Context-Content-Conclusion. Specially how it categorizes readers in two categories impatient and patient readers and addresses concerns of both.

> The C-C-C scheme that we advocate serves a more patient reader, who is willing to spend the time to get oriented with the context. A consequent disadvantage of C-C-C is that it may not optimally engage the impatient reader.

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

#46

Post by mtlynch »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #41
mtlynch wrote: post #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 hu…

Loved this post and am reading through some other posts on the site. Do you do the diagrams/images yourself? I'm talking about these kind [0] but I'm also interested in the cover images on the posts. [0] https://mtlynch.io/painless-web-app-testing/#a-reusable-patt...

Thanks! I work with an illustrator on the cartoons and diagrams. I wrote a post explaining how I found her and how we work together:

https://mtlynch.io/how-to-hire-a-cartoonist/

Professional illustrations are another thing I think are underused in blogging. It's not that expensive, and it looks much better than stock photos.

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

#47

Post by davidivadavid »

mindcrime wrote: post #42
throw0101a wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sci-fi author Jerry Pournelle used to say that the first 1,000,000 words you write will not be very good. He was not alone: > David Eddings, an American novelist who was most famous for his epic fantasy books, once gave the following advice to new writers: > “My advice to the young writer is likely to be unpalatable in an age of instant successes and meteoric falls. I tell the neophyte: Write a million words–the…

Unless HN comments count towards the 1e6, I need to get cracking. I don't know my word count for blog / technical stuff, but I'm reasonably sure it's nowhere near a million.

3 years of writing 1000 words a day, give or take.

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

#48

Post by aaron32311 »

I found it hard too.

Here’s what I did:

1. Start by making notes on your favourite podcast episode or book.

2. Use the notes as an outline.

3. Then expand with your own personal stories.

Search for PG and Seth Godin “on writing”. I found them both useful.

Also I used this method on my first post last week. And it got 25k views.

Edit: you can find it pinned to my Twitter handle

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

#49

Post by mosiuerbarso »

I've read most of the writing book on this thread and would recommend them if you wish to improve your writing.

Two other books I recommend are:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/353358.Keys_to_Great_Wri...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22458828-write-everythin...

I'm not the best writer. But I can churn out quite a bit of content when I need to. Here's some tips.

1. Allow 1st draft to be bloody awful. It's a brain dump. Just get it done. Don’t edit or correct any spelling as you go. Worry about editing, argument order or spelling later. The Pomodoro Technique is a great way to force yourself to get your 1st draft finished.

2. Write way more than you need and then cut ruthlessly in your 2nd, 3rd drafts. Rule of thumb is that your 2nd draft should be 10%-30% smaller than your 1st.

3. Proofing your writing is hard. If it’s an important article hire a proof reader - they’ll spot mistakes which you won’t be aware of. If it’s just a personal blog post, then listening to your article through text to speech software is a great way catch errors. Also consider using this app: https://intelligentediting.com/

4. Writing is a skill. You’ll get better the more you do it. I recently decided to redo a personal blog of mine which I started 10 years ago. This was my first attempt at blogging or writing since my school days. The stuff I’d written 10 years ago was horrible. However, it was good to see how much my writing has improved since then. But it’s taken a lot of practice, hard work and time to get there.

5. As Stephen King says: You should read as much as you write. And make a habit of reading good writers often. I recommend anything by George Orwell & PG Wodehouse. Some of their writing is nearly 100 years old but it still shines today. Orwell’s prose is masterful. More modern writers to read are Elmore Leonard and Stephen King.

Here's some software I use/recommend:

https://www.wordrake.com/

https://intelligentediting.com/ https://prowritingaid.com/

Lastly, practice, practice, practice.

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

#50

Post by ky3 »

> I have a topic I’d like to write about. However, I’m getting lost In the weeds and failing to structure my content in an easy to consume way.

Ricocheting from your consumption metaphor, could it be that your topic has enough meat in it that it deserves to be sliced and served over the course of several meals?

The attention economy being the way it is today, articles that succeed in being read observe the rule of thumb of one idea, one message, one piece of writing.

Post reply on HN