1. First, get started π¬
2. Do not Bury the Lede β‘οΈ
3. Brainstorm on Paper π
4. Talk it Through With a Friend π£
5. Learn Markdown π
6. Add a Table ...
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Superb one. Thanks for sharing your experience for free. It saves lot of my time.
I know my first article is very bad and not the latest article.
First Article: vkglobal.hashnode.dev/js-reduce
Latest article till date: vkglobal.hashnode.dev/explore-es-2...
I don't feel guilty about sharing like this because I never stopped learning and thinking innovative ways in presenting the content.
I have a goal to add new impression like mark down, table of contents, using emojis..etc. for each article I write.
Hence, one day I will surely have all the best practices to present my article in a very beautiful manner.
But your article shown some blunt paths I am currently following.
Many Thanks,
Vishwak
Nice article. You should also have an introduction to introduce what you will discuss in the article and a conclusion at the end to summarize everything.
Good point, I always struggle with conclusions :)
Me too brother.
Thanks so much for this, I found the tips & all the additional resources super helpful! One thing I learned while writing and I try to improve on is writing inclusively. You never know who reads your article and what their background is - and I think it's important that nobody feel belittled or excluded.
Thanks for your kind words.
Agree, I try to remember that we are all different and avoid at all costs title like 5 reasons why EVERY PROGRAMMER should have a BLOG! because it's so wrong to be prescritiptive like this:
I dislike not the content but the title, which deny that we all have different lives.
You can be a developer, mother of two small twins, therefore have no time for blogging outside of your job, therefore your title is false.
I use to recommend people use blogging but your opnion is really appreciable. It's true that we can't get time for everything in a short day of life.
And hope you won't mind it, that a stranger commented on your posts. I am new to these platforms, and I am afraid if people like strangers comments or not.
Hello, you are very welcome to comment! My hope when I write an article is to have meaningful conversations with people like you.
Thanks for all the pointers shared. This article should be bookmarked and I am doing it!
This is a great article here. I started writing 1 month ago and i truly love it.
Very good article Jean!!
Thanks a lot for your insights @yechielk @pjijin @john_papa @vtrpldn @helenanders26 !
For "4. Talk it Through With a Friend":
How exactly is that done? Do you summarise it (the friend is unprepared)? Read it aloud as is (the friend is unprepared)? Does the friend get it in advance in writing and then you talk about it? Or something else?
Good question. I don't use the draft article, I try to summarize it, and I try to make it interesting enough to keep my friend's attention
For 3. ("Brainstorm on paper"):
If it is relatively simple text only, I prefer it on the computer (in a simple text editor, not a word processor where you are distracted by formatting).
But I often use a mind map on paper to generate and exhaust thoughts about a subject, including blog posts.
Mind maps are also a good thing to have in your toolbox. I use paper when I feel stuck on my computer. If I don't, I don't use it.
Very valid points!
Excellent tips, thanks a lot for sharing.
Thanks Thomas
How did you make your table of contents into a dropdown list? Great tips!
It's yet another liquid tag: collapsible then endcollapsible.
Oh, I missed that in DEV's Liquid instructions. Thanks so much!
Looking forward to read your articles :)
Good article.
You make some really interesting points! Very helpful. π
Glad it helped you Margo!
Nicely written article. Thank you for the helpful tips!
Awesome, thank you :-)
Thanks Kathy :)
Great post, Jean-Michel. Thank you so much for being part of this community! We're so happy you're here.
Thankj you so much Gracie, that gives me the motivation to keep going.
Good ideas,
Thank you
Thanks for sharing.
Links in your ToC do not work...
Did you try this ?
Online and command-line Markdown TOC generator, with built-in support for BitBucket Server, GitHub, Gitlab, dev.to and more!
BitDownToc
BitDownToc adds a table of contents (TOC) to your Markdown files, either online or from the command line It supports Gitlab and GitHub styles, and can generate anchors to comply with Bitbucket Server (and its lack of proper markdown support), dev.to and more.
Thanks to small comments (in HTML or liquid tags), it can also detect previously generated TOC so you can run it every time you change your README without worries. In other words, it is idempotentπ€© .
It supports English, French, and most Latin languages, but not Cyrillic or Chinese!
Try it out now!β¨ β¨
β¨β¨ derlin.github.io/bitdowntoc/
TOC (generated by this tool, duh, using the
githubprofile):I'm very satisfied by this tool.
Thanks Benoit, that's a great idea.
I even contributed an issue on Forem to make something like BitDownToc part of Forem
github.com/forem/forem/discussions...
Very helpful for people who are starting with their blogs! One thing that helped me too is to not only write but also read other users' posts, be active, comment and like.
Great post - thanks for all the advice!
very helpful article..
definitely its gona help every writers in any of the platform
Thank Rahul :)
For "7. Be Liquid":
It is not clear what "liquid" is or refers to. Perhaps add some link for context?
It was a reference to liquid tags, DEV.to addition to standard markdown
For "9. Use tags" (cultural faux pas):
Yes, coffee and beer is far better than chlorinated water.