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Technical Writing Process: How To Write A Good Technical Article

Bonnie on February 12, 2023

In 2021, I joined technical writing, where I have written close to 20 paid technical articles and made more than $6K online. From my experience, ...
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Indika_Wimalasuriya

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this information. These are great points to focus on when writing, especially in a developer community like Dev.to. Clarity, conciseness, and relevance are key to delivering valuable and impactful messages. By sharing your knowledge and experiences, you can help others grow and succeed, and establish yourself as a leader in the tech community. Thanks again for the insight!

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Bonnie

You are welcome.

Looking forward to creating even better content.

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Ahmed Nadar • Edited

Great content you have here Boonie!

As a developer, I never thought I would become a writer, but I have always enjoyed teaching, mentoring, and sharing content with others in various formats. It wasn't until recently that a client approached me after seeing my writing on Dev.io or my website and asked me to write for them in a similar style. To be honest, I was initially surprised but then realized that I had been doing this for years, nothing new here, just never publishing it. It's simply a new format with different processes.

I have read some of your work, and I must say that it is excellent. I really like your style and the value you provide.

If it is possible, I would appreciate your insights on how you structure and base your compensation, as well as any advice you have on negotiations.

Note: I have tried to download your content from Gumroad but it doesn't work. Not sure why!

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Bonnie

This is awesome.

Send me a Twitter DM.

twitter.com/The_GreatBonnie

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Emanuele Bartolesi

At the moment I follow 50-60% of these steps... I will try with the next one to follow as much as I can.

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Bonnie

That's awesome.

All the best in your next article.

Hope it turns out well.

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Code of Relevancy

Great post

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Bonnie

Thanks.

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Lahitan

Insightful.
Thanks for sharing

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Abdulsalaam Noibi

Thanks for sharing Bonnie

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Bonnie

You are welcome, Abdulsalaam.

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Brian Kirkpatrick

Good stuff, and I wish we wrote (and talked!) a lot more about this topic.

One useful tip I would offer is, 1) set a limit; 2) deliberately overshoot; and 3) budget at least 50% for editing the overshoot into the limit. Let's say you 1) set a goal of writing a six-pager (or 3000 words). Then you should 2) deliberately try and write (let's say overshooting by half) nine pages (or 4500 words). Lastly, 3) spend half your overall time limit editing from 4500 to 3000 words.

Open-ended writing is a curse, and editing/distilling is where the real magic lies anyway. One excellent resource I can recommend: youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMaLkCaM

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Robert McGovern

Wise words. Although that last drop from 4500 to 3000 is tough!

Aside, say writing for Kodeco you are aiming for max 4k, but can overshoot if absolutely needed.

Readers patience / attention will wander the longer you go on though.

Basically, don’t be a recipe article (aka tons of flowery exposition … sure put your personality in but readers don’t care if Your cat looks like a ball); try and hit your point in as few words as possible but with context.

(He says being flowery)

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Andres Court

I have just started writing a technical blog, and from my next post on will try to follow the steps you describe

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Bonnie

That's awesome.

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

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Syed Muzamil

I started writing articles on my blog and some other platforms, I will try to follow these steps from now on.

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Bonnie

Good to hear that, Syed.

All the best in your writing process.

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ffex

Thank you! In recently time I started to get interested about a write tech articles. I always read, I always follow tutorial, I always check on StackOverflow and now I think that It is correct to share some of my knowledge! So Thank you! 😁

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Olufemi Oladotun Daniel

Thanks for this information, really helps. How do we deal with article lengths?

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Jason Boxman

Also recommend this post: diataxis.fr "A systematic framework for technical documentation authoring."

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Elías Pereyra

This is really good, I'll use this format because it's really well structured and clear.

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Shenghongzhong

Great! Where do you find those Gigi’s?

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Anneta Wamono

This was a very helpful breakdown. Thank you!

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Joshua Evuetapha

Awesome, nicely written, you are a great writer.