In this session, Iāll share my own experiences from writing over the past year.
Iāll talk about my motivations, how I got started, and the benefits Iāve seen so far. Iām not a regular publisher of content, unlike some people I truly admire. I am early in my writing journey, and still figuring things out. Iām certain some of you have considered writing before, and like me, have decided against it for your own reasons. I hope that by sharing my story, I can inspire some of you to give it a try. You have stories worth sharing.
Takeaways
Reasons to write
How to get started
The short and long term benefits for you and your career
About Aaron!
Iām a Senior SDET at Brightpearl, embedded in a delivery team and working with the wider SDET guild. We support our merchants with selling their goods and services, and integrate with major E-commerce companies, e.g. Amazon, Shopify, Ebay. Iāve worked across the UK and Ireland with different companies. Ranging from testing self service tills for supermarket chains, to building public services in the UK Civil service. I currently find myself drawn towards Quality Engineering and Test Coaching activities. I am passionate about communities of practice. I believe that a strong, engaged community is the best way to support and develop a practice and its members. This naturally has led me to the Ministry of Testing(MoT) community. Iāve written for MoT, and publish blogs on my personal site. Feel free to check it out for more about me and what Iāve been up to.
Anonymous.- First time writer here and loved your talk. What are some of your top used tools for writing?
Anonymous.- How can someone get started if they think they donāt like writing?
Jen Bauer.- Do you have an concerns about content ownership depending on where you publish your blog?
Anonymous.- First time writer here and loved your talk. What are some of your top used tools for writing?
Tristan Lombard.- Who is a software quality leader and writer that you look up to and why?
Not answered
Rich.- How important is it to work on presentation & visual theme of your blog vs just writing content.
Cristiano Cunha.- Sometimes life and work gets in the way, and it is really easy to write less and less. What is your advice on creating an habit and get a steady contribution? (edited)
Anonymous.- Whatās your tip for writerās block?
The July Bloggers club topic is up and ready to hear your ideas for topics! Weāll see what ideas are suggested, then Iāll pick a topic for us to write about.
If you want to get involved with the group, please join in. Everyone is lovely.
If you donāt have a blog, you can write post in the thread.
Have a blog already? No worries pop a link to the post in the thread.
Great question. At this time, I donāt think itās too important. My aim is to write with as few blockers as possible. Using github pages and jekyll, I could find a theme I liked, and that was enough.
If an image, or diagram helps get your message or personality across, then by all means do it! Iāve added mermaid.js support to my blog, so I can add diagrams more easily. Some of my posts have images and code snippets which support the content.
Interestingly, your question has touched on thoughts Iāve had recently about the current layout. Now that I have more posts, itās not as easy to scan and find something relevant. Tags and pagination could be good additions.
Do you find the content or theme catches your attention more than the other?
Hey @cristiano.cunha I really enjoyed your session at TestBash! Really resonated with me.
To answer your question with a question of my own. Do you have the desire to contribute regularly?
I also find it hard to make time. We all have busy lives .
The bloggers club helps me post fairly regularly. Looking back at my blog, I average about once a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Some of the gaps are when I was on vacation, doing other writing, or just taking a break.
I try to capture ideas when they come to me. Some of these things become posts, some of which Iāve published, others are sitting in drafts. That help with the ideation.
Itās OK to not be creating content every day. Just like its OK if you do.
Why not try join us in the bloggers club for a while? Its relaxed, and the ādeadlineā if you want to call it that, is flexible, and generous.
Thanks @flynnbops for your talk, as Iām new to blogging Iām always searching to see how other manage to get things going.
My goal is to contribute once a month and yes I have more things half done then the ones I publish and I have tried different approaches to assure that I commit to it, without being able to make it a routine. Iām still searching for my paceā¦
My main struggle is I never think that the new entry is interesting enough or worthwhile to share, so it take me longer to publish.
Nevertheless I may accept your invite onto the bloggers club