I liked this article as a collection of tips for effective writing, but did not find much about the topic of motivation within it. The author appears to be internally driven to write from the outset, and the advice given assumes that you also have the volition to write yourself and want to improve.<p>Is lack of interest a solvable problem? This is a question I continually revisit. In one of the comment threads for the last "how to write" article that was submitted recently, there was an opinion that it is not. There is nothing you can do to motivate someone who is fundamentally a non-writer to be a writer. The interest will never be there, no matter what the person chooses to say or think on the contrary.<p>Does the concept of interest have some kind of divide between "mental" (the subjects your brain is capable of focusing on at a biological level) and "volitional" (the things you say you want to focus on)? Certain mental conditions include symptoms like "specific interests" as diagnostic criteria, which makes me believe that biology plays a part in motivation in addition to routine.<p>Ideas such as those have made me question many other things. Assuming that lack of motivation is not solvable, is it justifiable to have interest in nothing (productive/creative/cultural) in particular, yet still be dissatisfied with the ways you spend your time?<p>There is some kind of cognitive dissonance that arises when I think that "writing would be nice," when attempting to write is an activity that I lose interest in within days of actively returning to it, but the original thought of "writing would be nice" <i>never goes away</i>.
My experience and techniques have been remarkably similar, albeit on a smaller scale than Gergely. A few years ago I decided to start writing one post per month on any subject within tech/software development. I've missed that goal a couple of times but my average since then has still been ~1.4 posts per month.<p>I write about whatever is interesting to me and most often that's exploring topics in tech that were a mystery to me before like compilers, databases, etc. Like Gergely I keep an ever growing list of projects or topics that seem interesting to tackle at some point.<p>One book I'd recommend most to folks writing in tech (whether it's technical or not) is On Writing Well, which teaches you the same kinds of things Gergely uses Hemingway Editor for. That is, to be concise and precise.<p>I think the biggest benefit to writing consistently is that you improve as a writer and that you get to explore interesting topics. Even if you are doing coding projects to improve as a developer, it's a whole new level to start trying to explain that work in blog posts. It's easier in coding to get things right without understanding exactly how/why they worked. When you write to explain you have to actually dig into that how/why.<p>Some people say tech blogging is great for getting jobs but in my experience, of all the things that helped me get work, my blog didn't contribute much. But I'm just one data point. I say this so that you don't get discouraged if you don't suddenly unlock emails from hiring managers because you start writing more.
Regarding item 4 "Copy Writing Styles You Like":<p>Ben Franklin, in his autobiography, describes an exercise he subjected himself to which consisted of, roughly:<p>1. Read an article or piece of writing you like.<p>2. Wait a few days for the specifics of the article to fade from your memory, but not so long that you forget the main arguments.<p>3. Rewrite the article without looking at the original<p>4. Compare what you wrote to the original.<p>I absolutely love this approach. His entire autobiography is wonderful, and a quick read.
> I also use Grammarly to catch spelling, and grammar issues, and sometimes take suggestions the tool gives - though I just as frequently reject them.<p>Grammarly has become a crutch. It either fails to catch typos or distracts me when I am writing. Moreover, I feel like I am progressively becoming bad at catching grammar mistakes.
The post touts writing and publishing regularly as the most important factors in having a blog, as many posts of this style do.<p>I figured I'd give it a shot, so last summer I set myself the goal of writing one blog post each week, for at least a year. So far, I've never missed the deadline. The audience/reach of my blog, however, didn't change significantly, and it gets progressively harder to go on since it feels like I'm writing "to the void."<p>A lot of people talk about consistency, but I have come to realize that after a certain point, "marketing," (e.g. spreading your stuff) is even more important. I'd love to see a post talking about that.
I would love to work with an editor. If any editors are reading this and are interested in a) working with a new client, and b) think they can help me improve, I’d love to hear from you. My website is in my profile.
I have the motivation to write and did write some short articles about things that I learned, but I feel that those are too trivial and mentioned elsewhere on the web and too shy to publish them. I feel that publishing a blog with trivial articles looks dumb. Is this normal? Is there a way to overcome this?
I always find these sort of articles about the creative process remarkably useful because the principles are quite generally applicable.<p>Write for yourself = Solve your own problem in startups :D<p>Pick a writing schedule = Seinfeld does this. Writes jokes 4 hours a day every day for decades. Also known as time blocking.
Re the point regarding writing regularly, I built an app to develop my daily writing habit. I’ve been writing every day for almost 2 years, averaging around 800 words per day. I’m pretty happy with it:)<p><a href="https://enso.sonnet.io" rel="nofollow">https://enso.sonnet.io</a>