Let me start this article with a DISCLAIMER!!!
It has been a few weeks since I published my last article (My experience with TribalQonf). In the meantime, I was thinking about the next topic to write about. So based on a chat I had with one of my colleagues, I thought of sharing something “about writing” would be worth for next topic and here it is!!!
Note: I don’t fall under PRO writer category. What I am sharing here is my Journey as a writer along with some ideas 🙂
I am fond of writing since my childhood. I still remember having a lot of notebooks where I used to write short stories, essays, novels, notes etc based on what I read or see. All these inspired me to be a scriptwriter for a short film as well. And now I am here as founder & author in our co-writing blog Synapse QA. I love being called as a story teller rather than a writer.
Somewhere during the course of my life, I actually lost touch with my writing skills, and the only things I wrote were testing artifacts, project documents and scripts for automation 😀 Getting back on track was not easy, but with right motivation it is easy to do.
I never thought that my dream to start a blog would give birth to Synapse QA. From several thoughts, discussions and ideas on how to share our experiences and opinions in a common space was the initial stepping stone for Synapse QA. Then it was about thinking beyond us (actually why only for us!!!). Synapse QA is meant to bridge the gaps between knowns and unknowns & the journey just started 🤩
Starting up a blog is an easy task. But what really matters is fruitful contents. The challenging task is to have a habit to add/write meaningful contents and to have the courage to share with others.
Great things happen when we overcome the fear of Trying
The initial days were like, opening a blank document to write something but end up in just staring in desperation. What on earth should I write about? Even felt that watching or doing something else is better than a blank page and a blinking cursor.
And when you start writing down something, there comes the feeling or fear of What others will think? Will I be judged? OR Will I be challenged? OR will someone think it as bragging OR Am I sharing about something worth to be OR Will I be the only one with this thought!!!
Trust me, if you ever had any of these experiences in your writing sessions, don’t worry you are on the right track to be a good writer! It’s just about getting rid of the writer’s block you have…
We all have the fear of expressing our thoughts and the first step is to overcome it.
It’s not about being judged, it’s about the learning you will get once you share your thoughts & ideas
I believe great ideas & innovations come from minds which share their ideas with others!!! When you share, you will see entirely different possibilities & that is where the real learning begins…
Share your learnings, Learning by sharing 🙂
Let me explain why I said so:
In one of my articles, I wrote about Some Myths & Truths about QA’s. There was a point in which I stated “Our role(as QA) in team is to guarantee quality“.
Is it correct?? If you asked me while I shared that, I would have said Yes because that was my opinion at that time. But after that I received valuable feedbacks & learnings on it which made me realise that I was wrong and updated it as “Our role in the team is to identify problems that threaten the value of the product & inform those to people who matter so that the product will be built with minimum failures, which satisfies the end-users“[References]
If I was scared to share my thoughts I will still be saying Yes if you ask me. But after sharing, the learning began & I researched and contemplate more about it to write a proper explanation which was indeed a gain. So if we keep what we learn to ourselves, it can be wrong at times. And always be open to feedbacks from others. It is about a journey together, not as a lone ranger.
Never be afraid & unleash the writer in YOU
If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice
Ray Bradbury
This is what I said to my colleague when we were discussing on writing. He has good ideas & thoughts which he use to tell during casual times. And I have read in lot of articles/posts by others resonating his thoughts. But, fear is the factor which holds him back. So I thought writing an article with few tips or ideas I used/using might help him and others who wish to start their writing journey.
Lets dive in
How can we find new ideas to write:
Find the topic you wish to write about and search for people’s burning questions on that.
- In this digital era, internet is the right marketplace to search for questions.
- Follow relevant tags of interests in Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Attend meetups, virtual sessions and especially don’t miss the Q&A & AMA sessions.
- If that also didn’t give you right topic, try Answer the Public. The following are the results for the simple search I did for “Software Testing“
Source: Answer The Public 
Source: Answer The Public
Follow What is Trending
- Follow blogs, posts which are trending
- Read trending articles, books, quotes etc
It is not to steal other’s idea!! Learn from it and write a longer and more in-depth one sharing your personal thoughts about the same. By thinking from your own perspective on different topics you followed, will help in learning & also to come up with more and more ideas.
Gather Stories
Open your ears and mind, listen to others… This is my personal choice, I believe that each and everyone around us is a pool of various topics & there are amazing stories all around us.
Being a writer means always being curious for writing inspiration
Search your own posts and notes 🗒️
Last choice, if you couldn’t find anything from all the above, mine from your own posts and see whether you missed anything to add/elaborate. Maybe you can expand the information in one of the headings and turn it into a new blog post 💡
Let me share with you a few ideas I compiled to help the thought process when you are in search of finding topics to write 🙂
My way of doing it ⭐
I keep my notes and ideas in Notion. To organise the ideas, I have created a personalised board in which all the topics/ideas to write are listed[Sorry for not sharing the board over here as it will reveal the list of topics in my pipeline :p]. And I do write or think on topics quite randomly. Sometimes even during midnight I wake up and write down my ideas 🙂
And this is how I categorise the topics [Sharing the secret recipe of mine..Shhhh🤫… keep it as secret!!!]
L.I.E.S My personal way of categorising topics to write
Here, the meaning of LIES is different than normal 🙂
where L stands for Learn & Listen
This is where I categorise the items which I learned or listened about and feels elaborating with my thoughts.
I stands for Ideas & Implementations
My personal space with my own ideas and implementations I have tried.
E stands for Experience & Executions
Here I categorise topics based on my experience and how I executed my ideas & learnings in career.
S stands for Sharing
Miscellaneous category where I add topics worth sharing, maybe personal experience on attending something or something I read about. Mostly it includes the “flashes of inspiration“
Once categorised I pick one random topic and start writing (without any edits in between). Picking depends on time to write as well. For example, in-depth articles requires research of few days & some can be quick and easy one’s. After drafting it fully, I read it a couple of times as a writer then edit it thinking from readers perspective to meet their expectations 🙂 To have a second opinion, I usually take help from my wife as well[My personal Proof reader :)].
Always remember to follow your own style of writing rather than imitating others, because that is what makes your’s unique!
Read as a Writer
Edit as a Reader
All great things have small beginnings, so start small to build big things!
Hope you can beat your writer’s block and unleash the writer in you after reading this post…
Happy writing and keep sharing 🙂
Lots of good advice here. I’ll add something: don’t be surprised if inspiration comes in fits and starts. I’ve now been quite a few months between my blog posts because (especially under COVID lockdown) there haven’t been inspirational incidents in everyday life to make me think “I could get a blog post out of that”.
At other times, you may find topics queueing up to have blogs written about them. I have a specialist (non-testing) blog where I have four or five posts lined up waiting to be written, and they’re blocked by other commitments which are preventing me putting in the time. But they’re static subjects; they won’t go away. They can wait and they aren’t subject to topicality.
And sometimes, you’ll find that ideas get overtaken by events. Sometimes, a blog post can be so delayed through other commitments that it ceases to be relevant, either to you or to your readers. So it goes. Writing for an audience always runs this risk. Professional writers are used to the idea of a “kill fee”, a payment from someone who has commissioned an article but then finds that the world has moved on and what they have commissioned is no longer relevant or in line with their objectives. (Often, a professional writer may have to kick up a fuss to get a kill fee, and sometimes they get ignored – but again, that’s the life of a writer.) I know that as bloggers, we aren’t (generally) getting paid for writing, but not all kill fees arrive by cheque. Sometimes you have to understand that the time for a particular piece of writing has passed; that understanding is your own personal “kill fee”.
Thanks for sharing your valuable insights on this Robert and great points added by you. I totally agree with you on those points, especially our own “kill fee” part