What I've learned after trying to write for two weeks

22nd October 2024

I like writing far more than I imagined I would.

Prior to this blog, the last time I wrote anything designed to be read by the public was at school, around twenty years ago.

I created my blog as a coding project first and foremost - a nice, easy, safe project that I could finish quickly to build up some momentum. I very rarely finish coding projects and I wanted to reverse that trend.

To my surprise, the blog has very quickly become a writing project primarily. The coding plays a necessary but supporting role. Very quickly, I can't imagine not having this outlet for my thoughts.

That's not to say that I find it easy to write though. When writing my very first post I quickly realised how much I'd underestimated the writing part of the task. I naively assumed that I could bash out a blog post about pretty much anything relatively quickly. Three full rewrites in, I realised how early I was in the Dunning-Kruger curve.

Frustrating though it was, I really, really enjoyed it. I'm now much more aware of just how little I know about writing, but I'm determined to get better.

I bought some books to help me learn but until they arrive, I thought it would be worth summarising what I have learned so far.

This is mainly for my own benefit, but if anyone else stumbles across this post somehow and is similarly inexperienced at writing, maybe this can help them too.

Simplicity

I quickly realised I have a tendency to ramble. Why use one word when I could use ten?

There are two bad habits I've identified that cause this rambling. First, I have a compulsion to be accurate. Second, I like to be nice.

Accuracy

I like to ensure that what I write is true, which means that if I can't prove a statement is true, I will qualify it so that it is true.

For example:

"This is true."

If I'm not certain that 'this' is, in fact, true, then that statement becomes:

"This is probably true in most cases."

It is now factually accurate, but much more effort to read for very nearly the same result.

I'm a nice guy... maybe too nice for blog posts

I like to avoid harsh statements and strong opinions because it makes me more approachable, in theory.

This is probably true in emails at work, but in these blog posts it just makes the text feel meandering and uncertain.

By being mindful when I write, I can distill my thoughts into simpler, more pointed sentences. This still takes me a lot of effort, but I am getting better¹.

Narrative

I know from previous research into learning theory that humans like stories. It's how our brains store information.

Fictional stories obviously have narrative, but I've realised that so too does non-fiction writing.

What are we trying to say in our post? How are we going to convince the reader of our point? What route will we take to get there?

It is still very tough, but the more I write the more I can feel narrative as I'm writing, and the more I can get it to take the shape I see in my mind. A bit like drawing a picture, but with words and intermittent breaks to add app code when I get distracted.

There is a balance between trying to get my original idea of the narrative to take shape and between staying open enough to let it morph into something better as I'm writing. It's a very tough balance. It's a good thing I'm not a tightrope walker.

Conclusion

I have a lot to learn, but I feel like I have taken a few good first steps.

Most importantly, I'm really enjoying the process. More than I ever thought I would.

¹ A great example of me rambling - the initial version of this sentence in my notes reads "This still takes a lot of effort, but I think I am getting better at this, though far from perfect yet."