
Ask HN: How do you find motivation to write blog posts? - gitgud
When I&#x27;m in a discussion or commenting on an article, I always think to myself, I should write a blog post around this... but I never end up doing it. Does anyone have this problem? Any advice?
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j_z_reeves
One thing that bewilders me is the time commitment to writing a blog article.
It seems like a lot of these high-profile developers are churning out blog
posts. It takes a lot of time to write anything meaningful and coherent. It
requires research and experimentation. The time to do so just isn't easy to
materialize out of a busy and occupied schedule.

I would love it if developers that wrote blog posts wrote, "Don't worry, if
this seems magical, it isn't. I spend weeks figuring it out and writing this
all out took several days!"

My advice, to myself and you is, just open textedit/notepad, and start
writing! Add a little bit and keep revising until it's publishable. It will
take weeks/months but I don't think anyone will care.

~~~
gitgud
> _" It seems like a lot of these high-profile developers are churning out
> blog posts"_

So true, the art of blogging has literally become an industry, where
monetisation and consistency is valued over quality.

> _" "Don't worry, if this seems magical, it isn't. I spend weeks figuring it
> out and writing this all out took several days!""_

This would be an honest depiction of a technical blog article. People don't
realise how much time goes into formulating code samples, diagrams and simply
making it fun to read!

------
akkshu92
If you're always able to come up with topics to write on, that itself will
become an excellent motivator to write more. Maybe take a step forward and
imagine how you'd feel once you publish the post—the exhilarating feeling.
Awesome, right?

Initially, I used to think it's not a good idea to blog if you're not saying
something new. So I tried hard to come up with topics to write on, and that
process consumed most of my time. And I ended up not writing anything at all.

Later I changed the way I thought about blogging.

\- Blind posts. What's obvious to you isn't obvious to others. No matter what
it is about, keep writing.

\- Writing is thinking. It's the best way to become aware of your biases and
ignorance. A sure shot way to improve the way you think.

\- New knowledge. What was the last thing you searched on the internet? Can
you write about that?

Here are a few essays that have helped me get past my 'writing lethargy':

[https://sivers.org/nod](https://sivers.org/nod)
[https://sivers.org/7](https://sivers.org/7)
[https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/the...](https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/06/the_day_you_bec.html)
[http://paulgraham.com/useful.html](http://paulgraham.com/useful.html)

I hope this helps. :)

~~~
gitgud
Thanks mate,

These are all great points, I especially like the " _What 's obvious to you
isn't obvious to others_", seems like a great way to write about something is
to write about immediately after you learn it, especially if it wasn't obvious
before learning it.

Cheers

------
soulchild37
Try break it down to smaller pieces, a 3000-words long blog post can be
intimidating, you can try breaking it down to multi part or until tweet-
length. Tweet each part first then slowly stitch them into a blog post

------
muzani
I "blog" extensively on Facebook, but not a personal blog as those are too
bothersome to set up.

What I do is simply write down notes around a problem and solution and them
dump the notes on a post as briefly as possible. Usually the blogging itself
is minimal effort.

Another method is just "scaling" up a conversation. People often talk
frequently about the same topics, like tips on how to start freelancing, how
to scale up a startup, and the answers are often the same but take minutes to
type up each time. For this, it's useful to just write it once and then expand
in full in a blog.

I recommend not trying to keep to a regular schedule of blogging, because this
will force you to write sloppy, unless you're doing constant experiments on a
topic and want to post updates.

~~~
gitgud
This is interestingly _against_ what people usually recommend. Usually people
say _" create you own blog"_ and " _keep to a regular schedule_ ", I suppose
that's to grow an audience for monetisation strategies... which isn't
everyone's top priority

------
Sachaniman
I think there's four things I suggest you consider.

1\. Writing is thinking [1][2][3]

There are a number of articles that explain this concept better than I can
here, but assuming you understand the idea, I'll continue.

The next time you're thinking about some problem, try to write your thoughts
and reasoning down as notes. Your writing should be an extension of reasoning,
and help formulate and refine your ideas. Whether your notes are on paper or
by pixel shouldn't matter, but just get your ideas down. Next, order these
ideas by logical progression: maybe one concept leads you to the next, so
order them in that progression. Finally, make sure the links between each idea
are not leaps in thought but rather fluid and clear progressions. Fill in the
gaps as necessary.

Now you should have an outline for your article. At this point, I've found
it's more or less a matter of expanding on and explaining each idea more
thoroughly. Of course, the hook and conclusion are less well-defined.

For me, if it's really something I care about writing a post about, I've found
I've already done the note-taking part at least. After that, the post seems to
write itself.

If you don't already take notes or use writing to help you think, I recommend
taking this as a first step to helping you write your blog posts. I personally
prefer pen and paper, since I can still keep the mistakes around!

2\. Write for yourself

Assume no one is going to read your article, at first. Write the article that
you would enjoy reading, had you found it on the internet. If you chase
external gratifications like writing for others' approval or maybe view
counts, your consistency and follow-through will suffer. If you write for your
own satisfaction, regardless of whether or not anyone will ever read it, you
probably have a better chance of finishing the piece. Because it's what you
really want to do! Try not to think about how many hits your article will or
won't get, or whether or not people will like it. That stuff comes later.

When you write something for yourself, the care and attention you give it will
definitely show. I'm sure you've heard of the idea that internal motivation is
generally stronger than external kinds.

Once you've come up with something you're reasonably satisfied with, send it
to your friends and family to read over and edit. Maybe ask people you respect
(and trust) in the community to help you edit your posts before publication
(if correctness about your ideas is something you're really worried about).
Just because you wrote something for yourself does not mean it's perfect and
exempt from criticism.

3\. Write the poetry later

If you struggle as I do with making each sentence "perfect" before moving onto
the next, know that you're not alone. But sometimes it's just best to write
the ideas down, get the meat of the content written out and explained, and
then come back later to frame it as a story. Maybe this is a matter of 'do as
I say, and not as I do' ;)

4\. Consistency is a consequence of planning

If you don't set aside time in your day to write or do your thinking, kiss
your chances goodbye. Treat it like a side-project, or better yet your job, to
write this blog post. Set reasonable goals for yourself, just like you would
with a software project. Start small, by writing your thoughts down and
ordering them like I mentioned above. Always keep in mind why you're writing
the post in the first place!

I hope that helped in some way.

[1] [[https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/writing-is-thinking-
an...](https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/writing-is-thinking-an-annotated-
twitter-thread-2a75fe07fade\]\(https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/writing-
is-thinking-an-annotated-twitter-thread\))

[2] [[https://boz.com/articles/writing-
thinking](https://boz.com/a...](https://boz.com/articles/writing-
thinking\]\(https://boz.com/articles/writing-thinking\))

[3] [[https://blog.stephsmith.io/learning-to-write-with-
confidence...](https://blog.stephsmith.io/learning-to-write-with-
confidence/\]\(https://blog.stephsmith.io/learning-to-write-with-
confidence/\))

~~~
gitgud
Thanks so much for the detailed response. That's all great advice.

I especially like " _1\. Writing is thinking_ ", I've always thought of blog
posts to be like story-telling, but for many technical blog-posts story-
telling doesn't work. I guess just explaining the idea logically is a much
better approach... (I can't believe how obvious this sounds)

~~~
yesenadam
Simon Peyton-Jones expands on the GP's 1st point – that you don't afterwards
write up your 'research' (i.e. anything you are thinking about/learning/doing
etc), but before, during, after - the writing guides, informs, directs what
you learn, every step of the way:

 _How to Write a Great Research Paper_
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK51E3gHENc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK51E3gHENc)

Most of that applies to all kinds of non-fiction writing I think. A lot of
it's common-sense principles that sound obvious, but most people don't
actually follow, so their writing isn't great. If you loved that, you'll also
like his _How To Give a Great Research Talk_
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_-
owjKIbA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_-owjKIbA)

Also.. Sacha Chua's wonderful _No-Excuses Guide to Blogging_ is wise and
inspiring. [https://sachachua.com/sharing/pdfs/2014-02-14%20A%20No-
Excus...](https://sachachua.com/sharing/pdfs/2014-02-14%20A%20No-
Excuses%20Guide%20to%20Blogging%20-%20Sacha%20Chua%20v4.pdf)

