Tips for making writing more fun

Other tips for making writing more fun, from someone who does it for a living (plus some other stuff #devrellife):

   * make it a story. If you are writing about an application framework, use an example application and make it something real (a todo app, a real estate search app, something you have personal experience with).
   * link to your other stuff. He has a good point about sidebars (don't do it), but if you have written about something tangential previously, links are a nice way to avoid that. Works for pointing to other people's work as well.
   * just ship it. He alludes to this in the last point, but seriously, the perfect blog post that never is published is 100% worse than the 80% done blog post.
   * remember that while you are obsessing over everything, your reader likely isn't. Recall how closely you read this article? That is how closely most readers will read anything you publish.
   * start with the end in mind (the title and the conclusion should be related and the thread should run through it).
   * kill your darlings. If something doesn't fit, no matter how interesting or witty it is, copy it off to some other doc (possibly for another article). Or delete it. Either way, remove it from your piece.

After two years of doc writing at amazon, probably Over 1000 pages of content at this point-

Early in the morning, when mind is fresh, not after full day of meetings

Block off 2-3 hours

Caffeine, empty stomach-

Start with first draft and just brain dump. Don’t worry about details.. leave lots of <<fill this in later>>

Start in a notebook with pen and paper only, physically remove yourself from phone and computer, sketch your thoughts on paper and then go to computer to brain dump

Don’t aim for any amount.. no doc is too little

Don’t format, proof read, correct too much at the beginning

Little wine/beer/whiskey can help (but you probably don’t want to do this early in the morning)

Long Hot shower can help you gather your thoughts

Take a break when your brain is fried, walk around, come back to it fresh

> Assume readers know the basics or will look them up [...] One of the beautiful things about reading on the internet is that google is just a click away.

Especially in the case of technical jargon, it's a good middle ground to link to a relevant definition directly. That avoids the friction of a suboptimal in-line definition and the friction of forcing a multi-click lookup. A beautiful part of the internet is links :).

> Instead of leaving posts as a boring todo chore in the drafts folder, it's perfectly fine to just stop cold and publish if a wrap up doesn't flow naturally. Honestly, nobody cares.

While I agree with publishing incomplete content, I would argue that this is an exception to the "Don't caveat, just say it" section from earlier. It's often helpful to caveat incomplete content because it treats the reader with greater respect.

> it's perfectly fine to just stop cold and publish if a wrap up doesn't flow naturally.

> Honestly, nobody cares. The fun part's done, and most readers will detect the wrap up section of a post and will usually stop reading there anyway.

And that's how the text just ends - self+referential advice detected :)

My biggest tip (based on my own experience): if you want to write something, record yourself speaking, then transcribe and edit only if necessary. The brain effortlessly produces sentence after sentence that flow pretty well when it's in verbal mode. The words just come to you with little to no reaching, unlike when writing and trying to think of the best way to put something.

Nice article! I can see how that can make writing more fun.

At risk of being one of the nitpickers; I do quite enjoy reading caveats, also sidebars if either entertaining or informative. Very much agree that it should only be done if it benefits the story. I would say you strike a nice balance in your article haha.

I really resonated with the tip about defensive writing. I do it all the time here and on Reddit.

It’s impossible to say anything on the internet without someone commenting to correct your grammar, pointing out a niche where your argument breaks down, constructing straw man and weak man arguments to refute the credibility of your post, etc

It makes me never want to contribute at all anywhere

To quote, "thanks, I needed to read this".

Writing publicly visible texts like even comments is a hard thing to do for me. Even if I am sure I have something of value to add, I mull over all the variations of how to phrase my point and in the end just delete it. Never mind writing a blog post, although I have played with the idea for a long time.

But sometimes you are forced to write, like for school/uni/work. And then I pretty much do all the things mentioned in OP's post, so this gives me something to think about.

It depends on the content. Generally I'd say the one idea per paragraph and topic sentence followed by arguments approach is the best because it's the most common way of argument construction.

Personally I love it when jargon is clearly defined in context and the arguments are constructed as if-then-else statements.

> Cut out explanations of stuff you're about to write about. The danger zone for these is introductory paragraphs.

It depends. You have to let the reader know (i) what you're talking about, and (ii) what you're really saying. An example: Suppose you write about how taxes are bad. What do you mean by "taxes"? What else happens other than the tax change? What current event is behind your decision to write about the topic?

The author is right if there's an introductory paragraph with a dictionary definition of taxes and then describing how taxes are collected in the US. If the introductory paragraph provides different tax rates (income, capital gains, etc.) and explains what they cover, who pays them, and so on, it's useful to include. You should err on the side of too much background rather than too little.

What the author calls "caveats" I call being clear and precise. Too much of that can become a drag, but reasoning without some kind of nuance, exceptions, etc, is just too weak, and will only persuade those that already agree with you. You may also sound like a jersey.

The entire blog post could have been a bullet list if he followed his own suggestions #1 & #3.

I don't really agree with his advice on caveats. Yes, they can certainly go overboard...but giving your reader a reason to go to Google is a potentially lost reader whose eyes are suddenly not on your article but a dozen clicks away reading something else.

1) Write what YOU want to read

2) Reread it out loud. If it doesn't sound right out loud, it isn't right

3) Rewrite it until it's what you want it to be

5) Don't worry about #3 in some cases. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

6) Don't polish a turd. If it's bad writing, throw it out, start over.

> Everything is full of interesting sidebars, but sidebars like caveats just make for boring reading for someone who's presumably there for the title topic.

I've found that you can have the best of both worlds here and use footnotes for sidebar material. I love reading articles with footnotes (they can be funny and delightful at times) but if someone doesn’t, they can easily ignore them.

Now i just need one of these for reading. Every time i get ten pages into a book it’s like my brain has to pee.

Having an audience helps tremendously. I remember reading that children write better when they knew someone will read their stories. I imagine they are more motivated to write too (although on second thought, I can imagine it works the other way -- it could scare people off).

The same holds for things like video. During corona times, I've developed a habit to watch videos about interesting subjects when eating lunch. So many videos about energy production technologies start with long stock footage pieces about climate change. I already know.

For me these things work pretty good:

1. Give yourself permission to write badly.

2. Write what you want to read.

3. Find a writing buddy.

4. Set writing goals that are fun and achievable.

5. Celebrate your writing successes!

Good article, but I have a nitpick with the w-- oh, I see what you did there.