It’s about time to provide you with some insights about the process behind the scenes. This will be an incredibly useful “How to be awesome” guide, so make sure to take your seat, grab a cup of coffee and be my guest, while I take you with me into the depths of the creation of my STEM-articles.
A few days ago, I got tagged (although he misspelled my name) by @mobbs regarding the creation of my content. Finally, I got the time to follow his request of writing a post about writing a post.
In addition to that and because I was not able to get my shit done earlier, @katerinaramm just recently put together an amazing FAQ regarding everything important for SteemSTEM-Noobs. So, I highly recommend in checking her guide out, BEFORE you start writing anything. After you have done that, you can crawl back to me and keep on praising my mad posting skillz.
Sounds weird but the following explanations will be incredibly useful for all the poor lads out there, who are still struggling to write a decent article with more than fifty words.
But lucky you, I’m here to help, thus I created the USAG.
At the beginning there was passion
You will NEVER be a good writer, if you don’t like writing. It just does not work. Always ask yourself, why do you want to write something. What is the purpose of your post? Do you aim to educate your readers? Entertain them even? Preferably both at the same time?
This would be a good start.
But if you are only writing because of the juicy @steemstem vote you might get, then it’s probably the wrong motivation. Usually it’s easy to tell whether an author likes to write or not – the ones who don’t, write as dry and boring as my non-existent humour.
Let’s be honest with each other:
Most people joined Steemit because of the sick gains they were promised and how easy it is to get filthy rich just by shit-posting all day long.
Problem is: it was all a lie.
I too came for the money – but I stayed because of the communities I found here. And because I rediscovered my long-ignored passion for writing and being an arrogant smartass (ok, this one was always there).
I have met some amazing people during the six months I was using this platform – and especially projects like @steemstem convinced me, there is something worth building, participating and defending.
That’s what passion is all about. To fight and die for a cause.
Ok, maybe not dying, but you get the point.
Take an idea and never give it back
Series
The next question is how to get the ideas for the content to write about.
First of all: there is no recipe for easy content creation, let alone success. I know, this might seem tough, but it’s important to understand this anyway.
I agree with @mobb’s proposal of creating a series – this way, you will have always something to write about and motivate yourself to post on a regular basis. I did so with my weekly debunking series and I strongly recommend establishing your own series as well.
Writing weekly about a given idea might sometimes be difficult, since at some point you will probably run out of ideas – at this point it’s very helpful to ask your readers for suggestions (and maybe even reward them). This ensures a closer reader-author-connection and provides you with some fresh input.
Lists
Another way of finding content is by creating a list.
“Uuuuh. Wow. Creating a list. How super innovative, duh.”
I know. I’m amazing. Thanks for the credit.
But I’m serious about that. I read a lot, first thing in the morning (ok, more often afternoon) I do, is to check my newsfeed about anything interesting – I usually do this for about 30 – 60 minutes. This is something I repeat before going to bed.
Every time I come across something interesting, I copy the link and/or write down some important keywords into a document I created for this purpose. This way I can be sure not to forget anything I maybe want to write about.
Currently, my list covers probably about 70 or 80 different topics (I didn’t count, but I’m quite good at guessing). So, I know I will definitely have content for the next months – and since the list is growing almost every day, I will not run out of ideas so fast.
Knowledge is power
I will be honest with you: I’m a Jack of all trades – meaning, I am interested in so many different topics, I can’t be an expert in all of them. But that’s alright. I don’t have to.
Way more important is the ability to understand scientific sources, statistics and methodology. The reason for that is simple: you will be able to check how studies were conducted and whether something sounds fishy or not. Or even simpler: you are aware of the difference between in vitro and in vivo studies and that only because something did work in mice, it doesn’t need to work in humans as well.
Usually I have three starting points from which I dig into my topics: Wikipedia, Google and Google Scholar.
Wikipedia
Is good for a general overview of an idea and you can use its sources to get more of information you need. Some of you may remember my series I wrote about the psychology of morality. It made me aware, that it’s not always a good idea to use Wikipedia for in-depth knowledge, because some of the information there are either misleading or incorrect. So, I strongly advise to use mostly primary sources.
Google
This is quite helpful to check for news articles connected to a given topic, other blog posts or some general information. In doing so, you can get some basic ideas about how others approached this topic, why it’s so important and what they might have missed.
Especially if you want to add some fun facts or interesting things, you might find them just by using Google.
Google Scholar
This is where it gets interesting. Here you can find a lot of available research for a given topic. Usually, I check for the most popular papers as well the most recent ones – so I can get an idea about the consensus and controversies regarding the conducted research. If I’m really lucky, I get my hands on some meta-analyses (studies which analyse other studies/literature), so I will be able to check for weaknesses in the available research and which aspects are sparking the biggest discussions.
Academic Databases
If you are stuck at some point and really need some further insights into a specific subject, you can also use one of the many different search engines/databases explicitly designed for this purpose.
You can just use the associated Wikipedia entry to find the one, which fits your special needs.
Content Creation
Structure
Whenever you start to write about a certain scientific topic, make sure to have a logical structure you are following through. This helps you to select the necessary sources and gives your readers some kind of guidance they can rely on.
For example: my Debunk-Tuesday series usually starts with an introduction, which contains some personal examples mixed with some general information about the issue at hand.
Following this, there is the main part, focusing on scientific research and important discussions until I come to my final conclusion (No, not solution, bad German, bad!), providing you with some personal insights and (hopefully) helpful tips for your future (I’m such a good guy, I know).
This approach might differ – depending on the things I’m writing about, but the main idea still remains:
STRUCTURE IS EVERYTHING!
Reading
Now comes the fun part.
After you selected the research you want to use, it’s about time to stick your nose into it.
MMMMMMHHHHHH!!!
Do you smell that? This is the odor of knowledge and power. Tasty, right? You are on the right track now.
Usually I skip the detailed part about methodology and jump straight into the discussion at the end of a paper – only if I need some more understanding about certain methods, I check the rest.
Additionally, I look for repeating references among several papers, so I can be sure that there is some kind of consensus (or debate) regarding a certain issue, in which I’m able to dig into.
If something sounds fishy, I check for the authors of the papers and sometimes this provides me with some further knowledge in assessing whether to trust a source or not.
Writing
In most cases, I switch quite heavily between reading and writing, so I can make sure to cover the most important parts. Having three screens to work with must have its advantages.
There are two main rules all you young and inexperienced lads should be aware of:
Thou shall not copy.
Whenever you may think something you just wrote sounds too similar to your source – you are probably right about it.
Be aware, we have the most advances plagiarism detectors inside the SteemSTEM-Community one could ever imagine. If you present the work of others as your own – there will be consequences.
As far as I know, using single images of movies is not a violation of copyright law.
Ok, maybe not Liam “I kill you wherever you are” Neeson style of consequences, but rest assured, people who steal other’s work are not met with much love here.
We have CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
Thou shall understand thy content.
If you happen to think “Hm, well, I probably didn’t understand what I just read and I’m not sure how to explain it” – then, again, you are most likely right about it.
While it’s always exciting to learn something new, be sure you can actually explain the things you are writing about to your readers – and can guarantee that the presented facts are correct or at least represent the current state of research. As soon as you have serious doubts: better look for something else to write about or ask an expert (there are several at our Discord-Server) available.
Style is Everything.
I know, I know. A few paragraphs ago I just said STRUCTURE IS EVERYTHING. And now I come up with this shit. What the fuck am I even doing?
Well, since you now understand the importance of having a structure, it’s time for the next step. Develop your unique style of writing.
This is THE key component in being a successful author (or not). If people don’t like the things you’re writing about – alright, that’s bad, but you can still catch their attention, if you are able to present them in an entertaining way. Even if they disagree with you, they might just read your content anyway, because it’s so amazingly well written.
Take yourself as an example: you may even despise me with the utmost intensity – but you just read about 2000 words of my gibberish regardless. Hah. Gotcha.
Key rule of writing
Do I want to read my own stuff? Just compare it to selling and using drugs:
If you sell shit, you would not want to take it yourself – your customers might end up dead and you will go out of business or someone kills you even before that.
But if you offer high-quality shit – jeeez. That’s what people are aiming for. And they will return over and over again, because they know where the good stuff comes from. You might even try it yourself sometimes. Just to check the quality, of course.
Don’t have fun in writing? Then the subject is probably the wrong one. Believe me, I had so much fun in writing this one – even if none of you guys like it, I can just sit back, relax, masturbate and reassure myself of being amazing. Good life.
Format & Polish
I do most of the formatting already while I write my posts. This way, I don’t have to go through everything again after I’m finished.
This is also the reason, I highly recommend teaching yourself the most important Markdown- and HTML-Codes, which can you use for Steemit. There are several guides for it, you can just use Google to pick the one which suits you.
After I’m done writing, I paste everything into a new document on HackMD – this ensures my coding was correctly done, thus I can now start to look for pictures.
In almost every case I just use random words connected to the topic I write about, spit them onto the Google Image Search Bar, adjust the search for “labeled for reuse” and hit the fancy search button.
From this point it’s basically just a question of personal taste (which I lack) to choose whatever seems to be fitting for your post.
Uploading to Steemit, pasting into HackMD document again, referencing it, transferring the whole thing from HackMD to Steemit, done.
To finish a decent article with about 1000 words I usually need about 3-4 hours. So, expect to put at least some work into your posts. Your future readers will be forever grateful.
Also, be aware to always give credit to all of the text sources you have been using for writing your article.
CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
Final Conclusion
With this USAG, you should now be able to create your own, mind-blowing content and achieve everlasting success and admiration. If not, you are either a dick like me or…well, there is no alternative. In following the USAG there is no success guaranteed, but it will increase your chances by at least 86.4% percent. This was a result of a recent study I conducted based on an in-depth-analyses off all the users who are using USAG.
Don’t believe me?
Try it.
What a good and an interesting post @egotheist! I am sure many steemians will benefit from this awesome post. Regards.
Thanks a lot for your appreciation! :)
Cool! I haven't read this yet but I'm very appreciative that you finally took the time, @egothaits!!
Edit: Now I've read it. And you say you've no sense of humour! Certainly NSFW humour, but it's still extant!
Haha, glad you liked it :D
You provided quite the useful guide back then, now we have @katerinaramm's awesome FAQ - so I kinda felt obligated to do something similar but different at the same time :)
Whoops, almost overlooked that one. Great job, good guide. And damn, @mobbs tagged me aswell in that one post...
Haha, yeah, I'm currently in the mood (and have enough time) to post more frequent again^^
And I'm looking forward to your contribution :)
Bless you for remembering struggling and up coming authors to who I trust will find this informative guide very useful. Gonna achieve it for future references... Thanks
Regards
@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities
Thanks a lot for your appreciation :)
A lot of persons came for the promises of quick money, while some have left, some are now staying for the community
Very informative guide you have put up here @egotheist
I couldn't agree more with your points.
In my case what I enjoy the most is to learn new things about the subject that I'm writing about.
Writing has to be enjoyable. Not a chore necessary to get some rewards.
From a resource point of view a challenge is to find images that illustrate the science but with suitable copyright. A good image can really help explaining the topic of the post.
This holds especially true for this platform. The amount of people who just post random shit is unbelievable.
Just ignore the noise.
I usually stick to my feeds and check other steemians that post interesting comments.
I just want to say... Good job!
I love the way you deliver this message. It is very engaging and informative.
Hi @egotheist!
Your post was upvoted by utopian.io in cooperation with steemstem - supporting knowledge, innovation and technological advancement on the Steem Blockchain.
Contribute to Open Source with utopian.io
Learn how to contribute on our website and join the new open source economy.
Want to chat? Join the Utopian Community on Discord https://discord.gg/h52nFrV