Specifically, a technical writing project like a blog post, tutorial, documentation, etc.
I'm in the middle of writing one and suddenly, don't know how to reach my point or what technical information to bring in.
How do you work past the writers block?
Top comments (10)
I've just dropped it and moved to other topics. Some I've actually deleted, others I ended up going a different direction. I've made a number of posts about how it is hard to write a post on the topic.
I don't spend much time on my writing, well not revisiting or sitting down to progress it. Sometimes I'll do a reading after posting and find all those obvious mistakes. I'm sure there are some negative impacts...
When I've had this with blog posts, I've just written something small and easy. Even if it's rough, I've got the blog post out there, I've done some writing, I've managed to push through the barrier and over time, this has helped me feel that I still have momentum.
Momentum is key! Even if I'm typing incomplete thoughts, I feel like it helps me to get unstuck to some degree.
Vocalising problems helps too, as we know with rubber duck debugging, but I wonder if writing it down works in a similar way. How often do we message someone for help only to stumble upon the answer picoseconds after hitting enter? As Richard Feynman says, "if you want to learn something, teach it", and I suppose this applies to technical writing!
I grab a scrap of paper, make a cup of tea and write out ten ideas - good or bad - that I could use in or around the thing I'm writing. New angles, directions, related ideas, conclusions, whatever. The process will always open up another road to travel down, and I can then rework the stuff I've already written to fit the new direction.
I love this approach! I'll try it the next time I am stuck.
If possible, sometimes grabbing some feedback of a person I trust (bonus points if they are actually non-technical!) on what I have written already generally helps if I've at least written an outline first of my intended content.
I've never felt that. I've just felt to busy or lazy. When that happens, I found inspiration back again when reading other Devs, and I put short deadlines to move my self towards success (yeah, I use that catchy word to inspire the little lazy Lautaro that's in my head).
I am certainly no writer. But what helps me is before I write any post, I write out bullets for each section header (and if needed, further bullets on the main points within each section).
If I can't figure out how to break down a document I want to write, I don't try to write it at all because it would most likely read like me rambling, and I find it rare when ramblings are useful!
Hum, that’s a very common problem.
But to overcome this situation, I focus on quantity rather than quality.
I have a list of articles in paper box I checked when I want to write something!
The list is very big so I will surely find an idea.
Also I used blog post as a recording of what I am learning or coding.
For example, I learned to write new algorithms, I will make a post about it.
If I am working on a project, and then discovered something I optimized or amazing, I will write about it.