43. Stop obsessing over grammar. Nobody cares
(Except this one person who will point it out in the comments. Don’t worry about him. He’s a jerk anyway.)
What counts most is the information’s essence. And although it may sound cliche, it is the way things are.
Simply because your grammar is flawless, nobody will ever visit your blog. I actually mean nobody. If “excellent grammar” is your only selling point, you’ve failed.
To put it another way, a poorly written, insightful essay will always be preferable to a well-written, sexless press release.
Ideas and tales! value for entertainment uncooked data! Prioritize building your content muscle before concentrating on your language.
44. Writing, editing, publishing – it’s a 3-step process
The process of getting an excellent post out the door and into the public still requires some thinking, even though language isn’t something you should be fussing over.
My preferred method is to approach it in three steps: writing, editing, and publishing.
Why would that be?
It’s easy and tempting to edit while you write, that is, to make corrections to your sentences and paragraphs as you go. Since we used it to write school papers, it appears natural. However, it isn’t the most efficient.
The issue with editing as you write is that it breaks your creative process, halts the flow of ideas, and makes storytelling more difficult.
The right method to blog, if I may use the word, is to write first and edit second.
Make it your mantra. How can I begin a blog? Write first, then edit.
When writing the initial draft, the objective is to write as many words as you can without worrying about how they look on paper (or digital paper). I really do mean that you should put anything that comes to mind that has to do with the subject on paper.
Here, it’s crucial to keep moving forward without stopping and attempting to remedy anything. not even mistakes You intend to write. being imaginative
Then, after you’ve finished writing the entire draft, editing can begin. At this point, you can return to your manuscript and begin editing it.
And I am aware that maintaining this isolation is a really difficult task. The key is to recognize this and try to snap yourself out of it. I too find myself editing this or that as I write.
Finally, there is publishing, which these days has taken on a life of its own because the majority of what we write is published online by us (rather than being given to a newspaper or whatever else).
The way blogs operate is distinctive. In addition to formatting the post and adding photographs, you also need to set your tags and categories, include some “click to tweets,” write the headline for your article, prepare the article’s body, and a host of other tasks that come with creating a blog. It all falls under the category of “publication.” Place this last. Just before you press the publish button, work on making your post appear fantastic.
45. Set up your blogging/writing tools right
You may thus find certain tools to be quite useful in your day-to-day life depending on how you go about beginning a blog and producing your material.
Whether it’s a standing desk, a new keyboard, or a cool web app, tools make your blogging life a lot easier.
Let’s simply review each item on this checklist one by one:
I. Get yourself a nice keyboard, please.
Stay put! Please read this entire article. It’s significant.
Perhaps the most underappreciated piece of technology we use on a regular basis is a keyboard. Right, a keyboard is how we interact with computers the majority of the time.
But we hardly ever change keyboards, and we hardly ever keep up with industry developments. We simply use what is offered or what our computer comes with. But that’s incorrect.
There isn’t a single keyboard that can do everything because keyboards come in a wide variety. It all boils down to personal taste, typing prowess, and general comfort in relation to your posture. To find the setting that is the best match, you must experiment with a variety of options.
Different keyboards have keys with different key travel distances. Mechanical keyboards are available. Membrane keys exist. There is everything that modern MacBooks have. Etc. But the truth is that until you give them a shot, you won’t know which one is going to work best for you.
So, try some things out at your neighborhood grocery. Simply wait around, open a notepad program, begin typing, and observe how it feels. You can become a master typist over night with the appropriate keyboard—at least, that’s what it did for me.
II. Try out blogging apps
It’s good to do your job entirely within the WordPress interface, especially while using the distraction-free mode.
But if you use specialized blogging software, you might become even more productive when beginning a blog.
For instance, iA Writer and Bear are two of my favorites.
- iA Writer is most likely the top writing program for Macs (albeit just my opinion).
- Bear is an excellent text editor and a well-designed note-taking tool for Macs. And integrates with the MacBook Pro touch bar more well than iA does.
Markdown is a lot speedier way to write anything, and both apps support it.
In addition, you can synchronize your content across all of your devices if you have more than one.
Other choices include:
- Calypso is a desktop plugin for WordPress. This one is compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows. Additionally, it grants you access to some other wp-admin sections.
- For the Mac, Ulysses It’s a somewhat pricey writing app, but it has a lot of devoted users that adore it.
- Google Documents It may seem apparent, but the most recent solutions allow you to easily integrate a Google doc with your WordPress website, effectively allowing you to export any document to your blog.
III. Experiment with helper apps
Here is a brief list of the apps that significantly speed up my work:
- Lightshot – the ultimate screenshot tool.
- Alfred – Mac productivity app, think of it as Spotlight search on steroids.
- aText – text expander app for Mac. “aText accelerates your typing by replacing abbreviations with frequently used phrases you define.” For example, I tend to use the word “WordPress” a lot, so instead of having to write it by hand every single time, I’ve set a macro that allows me to just write
WPP, and aText will right away expand it toWordPress. I have loads of other ones like this set up (for common typos I make, complicated words, etc.). - Notion – great tool for organizing your work such as article outlines, ideas, or anything else.
- Password managers – these help you keep track of usernames/passwords for all the other stuff.
- BetterTouchTool – your Mac touchpad and touch bar on steroids. I use it for custom gestures, and also to get these shortcut icons (among other things):
