On writing and getting from zero to done
I’m not supposed to be writing this blog post this morning, but I got writer-sniped by Robin Moffatt who wrote an excellent blog post on writing for developers as a target audience.
How does one go from an idea through to a (self) published piece that is effective/beautiful/inspiring/useful? Whether it’s some analysis, creative writing, how-to developer material, writing is an art form. Getting from idea to completed work is not always straightforward.
“… it's about getting past the shitty first draft. Having the taste to know it's not right, then iterating on it until your gut tells you it's good. The well-known challenge is that decent writers start out with a sense of taste, but lack the writing skills. That comes with time.“
Because I blog a lot, I end up reviewing other people’s blog posts as a favor. From years of reviewing I think the greatest indicator of long term success is having a good sense of taste (as well as an enjoyment of writing). I don’t know if taste is mostly innate or whether it mostly comes from reading a lot of other good writers. A bit of both. For myself I believe my own sense of taste has developed over the years, especially when I started taking writing more seriously.
That taste is important is not a new observation but one I absolutely stand by. Early on your writing can be pretty bad (for all kinds of reasons), and if you have good taste you’ll know it. Sometimes your writing is just bad, sometimes it’s bad in a subtle way but your gut knows it without you even having to think. That’s your taste saying “Nice try, but try again”.
