The Only Thing You Need to Know to Improve Your (Technical) Writing
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Really, there is only one thing you need to do to improve your technical (and non-technical) writing. It's a lesson that I actually learned from powerlifting.
You have got to put in the reps.
Tomorrow marks the 100th day that I have written every single day on the daily writing platform LifeLog. LifeLog is a writing platform that allows you to write markdown blog posts and track your daily writing streak alongside a diverse community of other writers. I started this journey 100 days ago, and I can honestly credit LifeLog for pushing me to write more on my blog, write more of my book and spend more time writing in my personal knowledge management solution, Obsidian.
If you want to improve your technical writing, you have to write more. You can't just read more technical blogs expecting them to make you a better writer, just like you can't go on Pinterest and look at drawings to make you a better artist. Sure, it helps, but nothing changes until you put something down on that blank canvas.
I can't tell you how many times I've fixed bugs or inefficiencies in my code because of my blog on it. Writing makes you more aware of your thought processes on developing projects. It makes you more introspective about your planning processes and your tech stack choices. It's a phenomenal habit that I believe everyone should practice daily, whether on LifeLog or on your personal blog. My daily writing now includes 500 words per day on my book, Building Web Scrapers in Python for Beginners, 100 words or more on LifeLog, several hundred words a day on this blog and Medium, hundreds of words a day in Obsidian and a couple hundred words per week on my weekly newsletter, Valhalla Weekly.
Technical writing is also a fantastic resource for potential employers or clients. I could spend an hour or two on a Zoom call telling them about what I know in the Python programming language, or what I know about the Windows API, or I could just link them my writeups on building a malware C2 using Python Flask, or my series on setting registry keys using the Windows API (articles one, two and three). An interview may miss things, or I may be a horrible interviewer, or I may be able to answer loads of interview questions but can't do anything practically. A technical blog will show a potential employer what I know. That is just one of many reasons you should write every day: with the growing popularity of technical blogs and YouTube channels, employers are starting to expect it.
This habit has made me a better writer, coder, thinker and person in such a short period of time, and it's a habit I believe everyone should take up. Pick up a journal, a composition notebook, a blog domain or a Medium/LifeLog profile right now and start your writing journey.