Day 1 of Hashnode Bootcamp: What I learnt✨

Two days ago, I was shortlisted to be among the participants of the Hashnode 3 days Technical Writing Bootcamp. I had to include it in my weekly tasks and plan in getting information on leveling up as a technical writer.

Figure 1: Acceptance mail

It was such an amazing opportunity to be among technical writers, educators and bloggers. I gleaned the majority of the insights given especially during each session delivered by each speaker, Ankur Tyagi and Swapna Kumar Panda.

I encountered some network difficulties which became stable as we proceed into the meeting. Before that, I joined the meeting a few minutes before we were addressed and welcomed by Dani Passos, Community, Hashnode.

Everyone was quite excited about what we were about to learn. The comment section on Airmeet was brimming with so many interactions where I was able to network with several participants.

1st session: The importance of Writing as a Developer - Ankur Tyagi.

After the introduction by Dani, Ankur Tyagi who is a developer based in Sweden was introduced to handle the first session. He spoke on how he got started at Accenture. He also spoke on the importance of writing as a developer. He emphasized some key points which I will share below.

Getting articles to write as a technical writer.

Most of the time, you may run out of ideas about what to write. But the best approach is to write down as many things as possible, then you filter out. He mentioned that the majority of what he wrote was not what he published. As a developer, you must be able to communicate your thought process in writing. This will help you to become better at writing.

Continue to Code

There is no how you can become a technical writer without actually coding. Most of the time you get inspiration for a topic to write on by solving a bug or building a new project. You can simplify concepts and processes when you are involved in the actual coding.

Leverage on Documentations

A participant asked a question on how to make research on writing about a topic. You can make use of documentation written on existing technologies to have an outline of what you want to write about.

Familiarising yourself with the structure and style guide of each doc makes you better at writing.

Write for your audience

Being a Jack of all trades and master of none won't make you better. After choosing a stack to write on, write what your audience like. Swapna made this same point during his session when he stated that "Write things from a layman's point of view".

2nd Session: Leveraging Technical Writing to land opportunities - Swapna Kumar Panda.

Swapna has been writing since 2021. He shares threads on Twitter that was where he got his first paid gig. He achieved this after building a brand on the platform for 9 months. He also publishes content on Hashnode because it is very easy to start as a beginner.

The latest addition, Hashnode AI can help with generating AI outline, table of contents, titles etc.

During the session, I was able to jot down some key information on how you can leverage opportunities as a technical writer.

Monetize your brand

After creating a brand on social media platforms such as Twitter and most importantly, Hashnode. You are open to various opportunities to monetize your brand. These include:

1. Asking for subscriptions.

2. Collaborations: Writing and posting articles will serve as an advantage in collaborating with other writers. Most especially when working on a project. This is because you have an in-depth understanding of your writing niche.

3. Paid content: Several organizations pay developers on writing on a particular technology. You can be employed and be paid based on the number of articles you write.

4. Ghostwriting: This involves writing on behalf of another person. Based on how good your contents are, you can monetize writing by exploring the path of ghostwriting.

5. Full-time opportunities: You have the advantage of landing a full-time opportunity by working as a technical writer or developer on the topics you write on.

Benefits of Becoming a technical writer

Aside from the fact that you can monetize your brand. As a proficient writer, you will enjoy the benefit of:

1. Developing great communication skills.

2. Having better visibility on platforms e.g. getting featured on Hashnode✨.

3. Become an ambassador in your niche.

Other opportunities

Apart from being a proficient technical writer, as time goes on, you are open to opportunities in becoming:

1. An educator.

2. A mentor.

3. A public speaker.

4. A celebrity.

5. A brand ambassador.

How to improve your skills

Sometimes, we become stuck by asking these questions:

1. What can I write - If you just started learning in tech, you can document your learning process. Are you learning something new? Then you can share your views and opinion on what you learned.

2. How can I write? - Having a topic to write on is not enough, you must be able to present it in an orderly manner. This can be done using an outline. For instance, if you are working on a project, explain the things you noticed, the problems encountered and how you were able to solve them. At the end of the write-up, summarize the key points.

3. Where can I write? - This is where Hashnode comes in, it offers lots of advantages in choosing the topics the audience in your niche wants, very easy to start as a beginner, developing outlines etc. The AI feature✨✨✨ makes the writing process seamless as you can automatically generate SEO titles for your articles.

Additional Key points

1. Write things from a layman's point of view. This shows you understand the topic you are writing about.

2. Don't make silly mistakes or grammatical errors in your articles. These are the things employers look out for in your articles.

Conclusion

The first day of the boot camp was filled with information on how to become better in technical writing and leverage opportunities. I am quite confident in implementing the nuggets learned. I was able to keep up and draft out what I learned on the first day. I am looking forward to the subsequent sessions.

You can connect with me by following me on Twitter, LinkedIn and GitHub. Catch you later😜.