Yesterday I participated in the first meeting of the Techincal Writing Bootcamp from Hashnode. This article comes as the result of that meeting. We were asked to describe our writing journey. Well, I don't have a journey yet, but I have a few reasons why I want to start writing 🤓.

What Kind of Writing am I Talking About? 📚

The type of writing I am referring to is not the Romeo and Juliet kind, altough I enjoy letting the inner poet roam free from time to time. I am talking about a more practical type which is technical writing. It basically means presenting, explaining or teaching a certain subject in a written medium. In my case the subject would be Software Engineering and Tech but not limited to only that.

Why Would I Want to Write? 🔥

Why would a guy like me want to write?

To Create a Digital Presence

For a long time I have been reading online articles about topics that interest me. Frequently when I wanted to learn about a new technology I would find myself reading a tutorial, on Medium or other platform.

If the article was great I looked into the guy who wrote it, even following him on social media, checking out his projects on Github and visiting his personal website.

Writing articles can be a gateway for the world to become aware of your work.

In the Show your work by Austin Kleon the author talks about sharing the process of your work with others. It dismisses the idea of the lone genius who toils in solitude for years until his work is finished, instead encourages individuals to share snippets along the way with the world to get feedback and create interest.

This can be tied to writing. You can write articles from time to time about something you are building, explaining some cool technologies you are using or techniques you are applying. It can be educative and interesting to the readers.

This over time can help you build an audience of individuals who find your content valuable. You build a reputation, people can easily learn out about you and opportunities find you faster.

To Learn to Communicate Better

Being able to communicate effectively is a valuable skill. Every day you interact with people and having the ability to get your ideas across can substantially improve your chances of being heard.

If you want to learn how to think, you should learn how to write. — Jordan Peterson

This article, gathered JP's ideas and mentions that writing helps you organize your thoughts and sharpens your thought process.

Everyone has ideas but few are the ones who can express solid and convincing arguments in favor of their ideas. Being able to do that can help you gather support for your cause. It can help you become a better negotiator.

I Find It Challenging

Not gonna lie, I find writing very challenging. It's difficult for me to pull the words out of my head and put them on 'paper'. I am constantly trying to find the best way to write a sentence and it can take ages and lots of backspaces until I find the one that satisfies me.

But I believe in the idea that what is worth pursuing must be challenging. Through hardship comes greatness.

I want to prove myself that I can do it.

To Document My Evolution

It would be interesting for me to look back over the years on my blog posts and see how I evolved as a writer, a professional and as a person.

I was inspired by the blog of Cosmin Rusu, a university colleague of mine. It was fascinating to read his blog entries from time to time and see the direction he is going in.

Why Haven't I Done it by Now? 🥪

I have been thinking about having my own blog for quite some time, so what's the deal? What stopped me?

Feeling Inadequate

I get the idea sometimes that I am not qualified enough to write something, like, why would anybody read what I am writing?

Fear of Making Mistakes

I am worried that I would say something really stupid. Add to this the permanence of internet content and you get a special kind of humilation.

Perfectionism

I keep trying to get every step of the process just right, the website, the design, the perfect first article. This leads to endless tinkering with the details instead of focusing on the main objective: writing. The more supersitious of you would say that this is classic Virgo behavior.

What's My Plan? 🗺

Honestly, I don't have a clear plan. I have ideas for articles that I gathered along the way, but no specific target in mind. A natural course for me would be to go trough these ideas and bring them to reality, that would seem like a satifying thing to do.

Also, inspiried by Avneesh Agarwal's article I am going to set some short and long term goals for myself.

Goals ✊

If the desire to share my knowledge with the world is not a good motivation enough then maybe the shame that I would bring upon myself and my ancestors for announcing it publicly and then not following it through would be.

Following the stoic principles I will not strive to achieve things that are out of my control, instead I will focus on actions that I am 100% in my power to fulfil. The main objective is to build a habit out of it.

Consistency is key.

Short Term Goals

• Write an article after each bootcamp meeting. I am already taking notes during the meeting. It would be a good exercise to organize them and share them as an article to other people who are curious about what happens in the bootcamp
• Enroll and complete the #2Articles1Week Challenge

Long Term Goal

• Write an article each week for 6 months. This would be a continuation of the #2Articles1Week Challenge

This bootcamp might be the spark that the fire needed. Catch you later, I need to cut more logs 🪓🌳

You can find me on Twitter and Github 👋