Writer wannabe

[k_kjong]

Hi Rene, love the site and love your writing. What would be your advise for a writer wannabe? And maybe, some tips and tricks in the business.

Thanks!

 

[metllicamilitia]

While you wait on your reply from Rene I'll chime in. I write my opinion pieces and reviews, I even post many of my reviews in the forums here. I'm a musician as well and write a lot of lyrics. The case with writing, of any kind, is just to write. Keep writing, you will find your voice while writing and then it's just a matter of putting words to paper to get your ideas out there. As for tips and tricks, I won't be able to help you there unfortunately.

 

[k_kjong]

Hey, thanks for your input. Yeah, I guess I just need to keep on writing, and participate more in the forums for some feedback, I guess. Sometimes I just feel my writing is not very good. But maybe that's why I need to keep on writing. To get better at it.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Hi Rene, love the site and love your writing. What would be your advise for a writer wannabe? And maybe, some tips and tricks in the business.

Thanks!

It'll sound funny, but write. Write a lot. There's a cliche about it taking 10,000 articles to get good, but really it just takes writing a lot and consciously trying to get better each time. Figure out who you're writing for, get so good at the mechanics that you can forget them and find your voice, and write, write, write.

I'm not sure there are any tips and tricks other than, hopefully, hard work pays off better than laziness, deep insight than superficial sensationalism.

 

[cuttheredwire]

1. Find a writing app that you love to use.

That will reduce the friction — the work factor — of writing. You will find excuses to use it and even other uses than just writing (perhaps todo lists, scrapbooks for research, etc.). That's actually part of why I asked Rene what he uses.

Ask Rene: http://forums.imore.com/ask-rene/383851-writing-apps.html#post2893430

2. Consider learning Markdown

Rene also tells how he uses Markdown. So does Federico Viticci of MacStories. In fact, so do I, and believe me, you write a lot as a grad student. That's something to think about learning too. It enables you to write in plain text in a way that can be transformed into HTML (e.g. blog posts), PDF (e.g. to print nicely), or even Word (because it's the de facto standard and professors still go by page count rather than word count).


If I may ask, what writing app do you use?

 

[k_kjong]

Thanks a lot for the reply, Rene. Your point of view really helps, I really really appreciate it.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

My absolute pleasure!

 

[k_kjong]

1. Find a writing app that you love to use.

That will reduce the friction — the work factor — of writing. You will find excuses to use it and even other uses than just writing (perhaps todo lists, scrapbooks for research, etc.). That's actually part of why I asked Rene what he uses.

Ask Rene: http://forums.imore.com/ask-rene/383851-writing-apps.html#post2893430

2. Consider learning Markdown

Rene also tells how he uses Markdown. So does Federico Viticci of MacStories. In fact, so do I, and believe me, you write a lot as a grad student. That's something to think about learning too. It enables you to write in plain text in a way that can be transformed into HTML (e.g. blog posts), PDF (e.g. to print nicely), or even Word (because it's the de facto standard and professors still go by page count rather than word count).


If I may ask, what writing app do you use?

Hey cuttheredwire,

Thanks for your input. Right now I'm writing on the Medium app, and so far I'm pretty happy with it.

Regarding Markdown, do you have any particular place where I can learn it the best? How about your favorite writing app, if I may ask.

 

[cuttheredwire]

I use iA Writer, which can post drafts directly to Medium. I like that it can export to Word, which my professors use. The HTML Copy feature is great for the forums of my online classes. (The dark mode is really well done too.)

As for Markdown, it's really easy. Here are the basics (tweaked from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown ):

# Heading

## Sub-heading

### Another deeper heading

Paragraphs are separated
by a blank line (not by hitting Enter once).

Two spaces at the end of a line leave a
line break.

Text formatting *italic/emphasis*, **bold/strong**, ***both*** `monospace`.

Horizontal rule:

---

Bullet list:

- apples
- oranges
- pears

Numbered list:

1. apples
2. oranges
3. pears

A [link](http:// example .com).

Another [link to a site][].

[link to a site]: http:// example2 .com