Technical Writing for Developers: How to Actually Start

Why I Started Writing

I started a tech blog in my third year. The reason was nothing fancy. I figured if I documented things I struggled with, it'd come in handy the next time I hit the same problem. I had no grand ambitions about self-marketing or building influence. It was just a memo pad for future me.

Two years later, I've written 83 posts. Average views per post: 143. Not impressive numbers. But the impact writing has had on my career far exceeds the visitor count.

The First Post Is the Hardest

It took me a week to write my first post. The topic was "Data Fetching in Next.js App Router" — but there were already hundreds of similar articles, so I kept thinking "who would read mine?"

After publishing, I realized something. Even with the same topic, my debugging journey, where I got stuck, and how I solved it are unique. An article by someone who read the docs and got it immediately is different from one by someone who struggled for 3 hours before understanding. The latter actually helps readers in the same position more.

(I still remember the joy of getting my first comment. "This was helpful. Thanks." That one line made me write the second post.)

Common Trap: Perfectionism

The biggest obstacle through my first 20 posts was perfectionism. What if there's an error? What if someone calls it out in the comments? These worries made me revise each post 5 times, and still the publish button felt impossible to press.

At some point I realized: a tech blog isn't a research paper. If something's wrong, fix it. I've had errors pointed out in comments 7 times. Each time, I learned something and the post got more accurate.

What to Write About

My posts fall into three categories: debugging logs, learning notes, and experience sharing.

Debugging logs are the easiest to write and get the best reception. "How I solved this error after 3 hours of struggling" — posts like these get a lot of search traffic. People hitting the same problem find them on Google.

Learning notes help my own growth. Organizing notes while studying a new technology deepens understanding. But they take a long time — 4 to 5 hours per post.

Experience sharing is the hardest to write but most rewarding. Not technical content, but reflections on work — lessons from failures, things I've learned. These posts get fewer visitors but more empathetic comments.

Mistake: I Tried to Write Too Much

For a while I set a goal of "one post per week." I burned out in 2 months. I could feel the quality dropping. I switched to "2-3 posts per month, when I feel like it." Consistency matters, but forced consistency is counterproductive.

Practical Tips for Starting

Things I've learned from writing 83 posts.

Write about what you struggled with today. It's the easiest way to stop agonizing over topics. Error fixes, configuration headaches, library comparisons. You've already lived through it, so no research needed.

Outline the structure first. Introduction, problem, solution process, conclusion. Sketch this skeleton out first, then fill in the details. It cuts through the overwhelm.

Draft fast, edit slow. Trying to write perfect sentences from the start means you won't write a single word. Get your thoughts down first, then revisit and polish the next day.

Don't overthink the platform. Start on Notion, write markdown on GitHub — whatever. The platform matters less than the writing itself. I started on Velog and later moved to a personal blog. Where you write doesn't matter as much as the act of writing.

It's okay if nobody reads it. My first month had 7 visitors. But the most important reader is future me. I've actually gone back to reference my own posts from 6 months ago multiple times.