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How to beat
technical writer's block
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Carl Alexander
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@twigpress
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carlalexander.ca
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We see our developer peers
write wonderful articles
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“Maybe I should do the same?”
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Obstacle: Writer’s block
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“What do I write about?”
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“This is ”
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Happens to both
new and experienced writers
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Makes us want to stop writing
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Warning:
Not going to talk about goals
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What to write about?
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Most frustrating thing
about writer’s block
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A lot of sources of material
for technical writing
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We just don’t think about
them that way
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A problem that you faced
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We often solve problems that
we couldn’t find answers to
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Others are probably looking
for answers just like you were
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Why not write about it!?
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Easier to write about
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Better able to empathize
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Something you’re working on
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A lot of us have side projects
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Write about them!
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Tried a new technology?
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Used a new concept?
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Can't always to try
new things at work
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Postmortems
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Talk about a concept or
technology in the wild
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Serious effort
implementing things
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Discuss what went well
and what didn't
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Interesting to other
developers
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Valuable when evaluating
things for a project
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Answer questions
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Everyone is asking questions
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Pick one and write about it
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How I wrote my first article
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Where can you find
questions to answer?
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Things you wish
people knew about
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Why I started writing
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“I feel people should know
about this”
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“I can’t find anything on it”
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Not a topic
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Not for developers without a
computer science background
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Write for your past self
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Your writing process
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As important as where
you get your topic ideas
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Developing a
regular writing habit
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Don’t wait for
inspiration to “hit you”
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Try to write every day
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Doesn’t matter if it’s not great
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About getting used to the idea
of writing something
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It doesn't matter
how much you write
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We feel that we have to write a
lot every time we try to write
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Experiment with
your writing habit
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Specific time of the day
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Amount of time per day
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Number of words per day
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How this played out for me
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On writing slowly
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Benefits to writing slowly
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Writing is about putting
our thoughts into words
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It’s a thinking exercise
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Hard to write if
things aren’t clear in our head
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Writing slowly gives
you time to think
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Can take a long time to write
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Other things to keep in mind
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Not specific to dealing
with writer's block
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Other ways to solve problems
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Tempting to say this is
“the way” to solve a problem
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Something that worked for
you and might work for others
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Like this talk
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You don't know everything
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Limits to our knowledge
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Be honest
about what you know
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Saying “I don't know”
is a sign of strength
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Do your best not to be wrong
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Try to overcome
the limits of your knowledge
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Fact check yourself
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Working proof of concept
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Can be time consuming
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It’s about practice
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Writing is a habit
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Doesn’t happen overnight
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Writer's block is a setback
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Thank you!