Although I have already published over 130 original articles on my WeChat public account, and before that, I wrote a blog for more than ten years, I still feel that I can't write well.
Most of what I wrote earlier were technical articles or summaries. I think it's good enough if I can explain a technical point clearly so that someone who doesn't understand it can learn something. Even if it doesn't help others, it can serve as a personal memo.
None of this involves literary skill.
So, when I see many people open their computers, and as their fingers quickly tap on the keyboard, beautiful words flow out from between their fingertips and appear on the screen, I feel very envious.
Seeing some self-media creators not only have beautiful words but also produce content prolifically, I admire them even more.
In my view, writing ability consists of two parts:
- Having content to write about continuously;
- Writing content that people are willing to read.
Below I will discuss my views on improving writing ability from these two aspects.
When I started the public account, I set a goal of publishing one article per week. It seemed simple, but persisting in the long run was difficult. Here are my public account publication data from recent years:
- 2022 up to the end of April (21 articles)
- 2021 (37 articles)
- 2020 (28 articles)
- 2019 (27 articles)
From the data, I haven't achieved the goal in any year, but you can see that it's developing in a good direction, and this year I am quite hopeful of achieving it.
Previously, I was very worried about having nothing to write. Sometimes when I wrote two articles in a weekend, I would save one for the next week. Now I no longer have that worry because I understand that to have continuous output, I must have continuous input.
There are many ways to input:
- Systematically learn new technologies, read books;
- Use fragmented time to browse Zhihu, Douban, Toutiao, WeChat public accounts, etc.
You might think that you have learned a lot and read a lot, but when you need to use it, you can't recall it. There are two important reasons:
- Important knowledge was not read thoroughly, not deeply understood, and may be forgotten when the book is closed;
- No connections have been established between the knowledge learned.
Recently, I interviewed a backend developer who said he likes to read in his spare time.
I asked: "What book did you read recently?"
The interviewee said: "I just finished a Redis related book."
I continued: "Then can you explain why Redis is single-threaded yet still so fast?"
The interviewee: .........
This shows that the interviewee just skimmed through the book without asking questions or understanding every key point, to the point that he couldn't answer such an important question. This kind of reading that aims for quantity is not advisable.
During intensive reading, we understand the author's viewpoint, and we also need to summarize it in our own words and organize it in text. I now use Flomo to record these summaries, using tags and annotations, plus search, to easily find related records.
Our energy is limited. Not every book or piece of information needs intensive reading. For any field or technology, there are always some classic books. For example, C# has "CLR via C#" and "C# in Depth". These classic books require intensive reading. The key points extracted from them form the trunk of a knowledge tree. Other books or content absorbed in fragmented time serve as the branches and leaves. For organizing such knowledge trees, I prefer using mind maps.
In addition to the systematic learning and fragmented time absorption mentioned above, there is another type that is easily overlooked: the inspirations that pop into our minds anytime and anywhere. If not recorded in time, they will be fleeting.
Currently, the methods I use for content collection are:
- Record excerpts, viewpoints, and thoughts while reading books into Flomo, setting appropriate tags;
- Periodically organize the content in Flomo into a mind map, forming a knowledge tree;
- Collect golden sentences and short stories seen online into Flomo. For example, I once saw management guru Drucker say: "Don't just pull the cart without looking up at the road, eventually forgetting your main goal." I saved it to Flomo on the spot and tagged it: golden sentence, management.
- When I want to write an article, I first decide on a topic, then outline it in Typora, then search the mind map and Flomo for keywords to find useful information, put it into Typora, add some transitions and extra supplements, and the article is ready.
So far, I've only solved the problem of what to write. I'm still exploring how to write.
I do some reflection every day and write some summary text. I can express my opinions on hot news topics online through writing. I can also discuss in technical groups using text. Within the team, I can write articles for technical sharing. In short, writing more is never wrong.
Writing is meant to make it clear to readers what we want to express. So, concise and clear text is enough; there's no need for a lot of ornate words, especially in technical articles.
Read good articles and learn from their structure and word usage. Among the public accounts I follow, "二爷鉴书", "MactTalk", and "小众消息" have very plain but comfortable writing.
Be your own reader. In the past, when I wrote a blog, I would publish it immediately after finishing. Now, on the WeChat public platform, published articles can only be modified to a limited extent, so I am very cautious before publishing. After finishing, I read it myself, adjusting sentences that are not smooth or verbose, and also checking for typos.
Although online information is rich nowadays, it is filled with a lot of low-quality and repetitive information. If you can persist in original writing and clearly explain something, you can already surpass a large portion of people.
So, if you have something to say, just start writing. The medium doesn't matter, the format doesn't matter, but I hope you can persevere. Leave the rest to time.