The document provides a comprehensive guide on how to write a blog post for the TES Engineering community, outlining the importance of sharing ideas and building a public profile. It emphasizes the writing process, including generating ideas, structuring content, drafting, and editing, while suggesting various formats and key messages to convey. The document also offers practical tips to overcome writer's block and ensure clarity and accuracy in the final piece.

1. How to write a blog post
@rouanw
http://engineering.tes.com
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2. Why
Medium to share what you think or learn
Help build a public profile for yourself
Introduce others to TES Engineering
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3. Writing a post
1. Have an idea
2. Structure
3. Write
4. Edit
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4. Ideas
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5. Audience
Who are you writing for?
Engineers looking for help on a particular topic
Engineers interested in TES's tech stack
Engineers interested in TES's way of doing things
Engineers at TES
Engineers interested in joining TES
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6. Ideas come from your every day work. What you do is interesting.
Something new you've used / tried
A difficult problem you've solved
A technique you've used to do something others
struggle with
Your reaction to a framework / coding style / opinion
/ trend
Something you've taught someone
Something someone's taught you
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7. Ideas come from your every day work. What you do is interesting.
An idea or mindset you'd like others to consider
A question you're considering
Defining something new / pointing out things you've
noticed
A conference or knowledge sharing talk or idea
Something you've hacked on
...
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8. Structure
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9. Formats
Tutorial / guide / demo (Rachel: Secure file uploads)
Case study (Jonny: Front-end performance)
Introduction (Khush: gitrob)
Experience report (JBB: Standing desks)
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10. Formats
Argument for / against something
Outline an approach
Definition
Answering / asking a question
List of tips / ideas
Interview
Comparison
Proof of concept
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11. Key message
What do you want your reader to remember?
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12. Jot down key points
Bullet list
Mindmap
Write and then extract structure
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13. Stuck?
Lists aren't scary
List of examples
Steps to get library X working with framework Y
7 things you need to remember when...
4 signs you're doing ... wrong
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14. Write it down
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15. Tips
Remember you write all the time
Flesh out each key point in turn
If you get stuck on one point, move to the next
Have a spot to jot down new ideas as they come to
you
Use a tool with built-in versioning
Move things around
Don't self-censor or edit too early
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16. Stuck?
Imagine yourself explaining to someone
Actually explain it to someone
Notice the key points you have to cover
Look at conversations you've already had on
HipChat or GitHub
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17. Editing
Making sure your point gets across
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18. Content editing
Accuracy (e.g. code examples, missing steps?)
Clarity (is it easy to understand & follow)
New ideas (for this / next article)
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19. Stylistic editing
Grammar
Writing style
Voice
Pitch
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