Last month, our company internal tech comm newsletter published a short article about my blog! Actually, I wrote the article because a few colleagues were interested in learning more about my blog, why I started blogging, and how I maintain the blog.
As promised, here is the article in full.
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Shanghai Tech Writer is a blog about technical writing, technology, blogging, fun stuff, and my experiences working at NI Shanghai. This blog was hosted on my personal domain but moved to its own domain in April because the blog was gaining popularity.
How did you get the idea to start your blog about technical writing?
I started this blog several weeks before I even started working as a technical writer at NI! I was very excited about starting a new job/career and wanted to share about my excitement. Also, I didn’t think technical writing was very popular in China, so it was a good opportunity to share about my experiences from the very beginning.
What do you enjoy most writing the entries for this blog?
I wrote an article recently about why I like to blog. While I like being a technical writer, I find that I spend more time writing emails each day than writing actual content. And when I do write content, I’m under the constraint of the NI Style Guide or whatever product I’m documenting. Blogging is an outlet for me to write about anything and everything. Shanghai Tech Writer is a blog about technical writing and technology-related stuff. I have two other blogs (personal and food/health), but Shanghai Tech Writer is my most active blog.
How do you come up with the topics to write about?
Whenever I find, learn, read about, or think of anything interesting, I try to jot down a few notes/ideas so I can blog about it later. For technical writing-related articles, I have to be more observant about the things I’m doing and learning at work. I also subscribe to a few blogs to read about other technical writers’ experiences, the latest trends, and blogging tips.
Does it take a long time to write an entry?
Depends. Some entries take 20-30 minutes to write and some take days or weeks. I don’t always have time to write a full article in one sitting, but the key is to keep the creative juice flowing. I keep all my ideas, notes, and drafts in one location, so that when I do have time to write, I can write about any of the topics I’ve already started. Some posts are fully-inspired and easier to write, while others require a lot of research, thought, and time. At any point, I usually have about 10-15 drafts I’m working on. It’s more productive this way; otherwise, I might be stuck with writer’s block and not know what to write about.
How often do you blog?
When I started this blog, posting was pretty sporadic. I didn’t have a good system down so I wrote an entry whenever I had an idea and/or time. That meant a few entries a month. In recent weeks, I started posting more regularly, almost every day, after I started managing all my ideas in one place. I spent one weekend at a cafe where I wrote 10 articles in one sitting and scheduled them to publish throughout the month. Now I usually have about a month’s worth of articles scheduled to publish, so I’m able to take more time to research and write new articles. That way I don’t have to worry about days when I don’t have time to blog.
Is blogging popular in China?
I think blogging is quite popular in China. I know many people in China use MSN Space and maintain personal blogs, but I haven’t seen many professional, work-related, or self-hosted blogs. I haven’t seen other technical writing blogs in China either, although I’ve connected with a few local technical writers. I hope to get a few of them to write guest posts on Shanghai Tech Writer. One of my goals for this blog is to promote the technical communication profession in China.
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