Technical “Writer’s Block”

As a Technical Writer, I often wondered about getting “writer’s block.” I mean, it’s not as if you have the choice to have it or not when you are at work. If the deadline is there, or you are working by the hour, you’ve just got to be productive and write.

I’ve seen the cartoons and the movies just like you. The frustrated writer sitting in front of a typewriter with a trash can behind them, and loads of crumpled and torn papers thrown into and around it.

The fact is, I don’t think I have ever suffered from writer’s block as a technical writer. It could be that the work is more black and white than say, creative writing. But even still, you have to think about the best and clearest ways to present complex information, so there is still a creative element. It could be that I do get writer’s block, but by doing the following have managed to mostly avoid it. So below, I will present you with my top ten list of how to avoid writer’s block as a technical writer.

These are things that have worked for me:

  1. Multi-shuffle your tasks. (i.e. if you get stuck on one task, have other tasks ready that you can switch to).
  2. Think about ideas in the back of your mind even in off hours.
  3. Start your work, then come back to it the next day, or even the next week (if time allows for it).
  4. Research for inspiration!
  5. Go out for a walk to free your mind.
  6. Bounce ideas off of a coworker or friend.
  7. Create an outline of your thoughts and ideas.
  8. Deal with the more complicated writing tasks first thing in the morning.
  9. Practice writing all the time, by writing in a journal or blog.
  10. Join a writing society or group where you can meet and learn from other writers.

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer%27s_block
(includes a list of strategies for overcoming writer’s block)

https://www.essortment.com/all/howtoovercome_rsjm.htm
(this person says writer’s block isn’t real!)

https://thefuturebuzz.com/2008/12/03/how-to-overcome-writers-block/
(15 tips on overcoming writer’s block)

Find me on Twitter: @jacbird @masitblog

An Overview of Internet Aggregators!

With the vast amount of information now available on the world wide web, it’s no wonder that people are feeling overwhelmed and bombarded with information. How can a person possibly go about sorting it all out? One possible solution is to use good Google search terms, and narrow your searches so that only the exact information you need will appear. But even so, how can you be sure that the information coming your way is up-to-date, contains quality content, is accurate or even relevant etc.? Also, with so much information out there, how can you be sure that you’re not missing the “good bits”?

Below you will find a list of several of the most popular aggregator sites on the net, many of which are my favourites. By no means is it intended to be exhaustive, but perhaps you’ll discover one you’ve never seen or used before!

Web-based News Aggregators:

Probably the most common and original type of aggregator, these sites gather breaking news articles from various sources and present them in one convenient place.

Alltop – The Online Magazine Rack

Alltop - The Online Magazine Rack

Alltop – The Online Magazine Rack

  • An online “magazine rack” of popular topics
  • Stories are updated every hour
  • Allows you to search by topic
  • A new feature allows you to create your own personalized “magazine rack”

 

Google Reader

Google Reader

Google Reader

  • Google’s solution to news aggregation
  • Excellent recommendations and easy to add feeds
  • no download needed
  • Google Trends and iGoogle integration

Other popular web-based aggregators:

Google News

Google News

Google News

Yahoo News

Yahoo News

Yahoo News

Application-based News Aggregators:

These are news aggregators which require the installation of software on your CPU

Cooliris

Cooliris provides an 'out of browser' experience

Cooliris provides an

  • A visual experience that takes you beyond what a standard browser can deliver
  • Browse through videos, photos, news stories faster than ever before
  • Shop, explore, and research tool all in one beautifully designed package
  • Available as an “add on” for most major browsers

Mozilla Thunderbird

Open source at its absolute best

Open source at its absolute best

  • Mozilla Thunderbird is a free open source email and RSS feed reader all in one
  • The fact that it’s open source means that you’ll have the most up-to-date version at all times

Search Term Aggregators and Analytics:

Google Insights

Google Insights gives you the whole story behind popular search terms

Google Insights gives you the whole story behind popular search terms

  • There is so much fun to be had by all with this one! Enter in a search term to produce a graph of interest in that search term over time (scroll your cursor along the graph to get date information). A bar chart graph is also displayed which shows interest in that search term by country.
  • Over at the top right in the Filter section, you can use the Worldwide drop down menu to select a country, and see what search terms are popular by country.
  • Note that Google Insights is an extension of Google Trends. www.google.com/trends

Conversation Aggregators:

Twitter Search

Twitter Search gives you the most up-to-date scoop on unfolding news events

Twitter Search gives you the most up-to-date scoop on unfolding news events

  • Twitter search allows you to search Twitter conversations in real time. For example, you could enter in a search term such as eLearning to bring up hits of conversations about that topic as recently as a few hours ago.
  • Discover what people are saying about a unfolding news event in real time
  • See this blog post for more info on this new and powerful search tool

Aggregator of Aggregators:

www.popurls.com

Popurls is an aggregators of aggregators, bringing you the latest in web buzz from Digg, Reddit, Delicious and copious other sources.

Popurls is an aggregators of aggregators, bringing you the latest in web buzz from Digg, Reddit, Delicious and copious other sources.

Book and Journal Article Aggregators:

Google Scholar

Google Scholar allows you to search millions of published academic journals, books and articles

Google Scholar allows you to search millions of published academic journals, books and articles

  • Are you a scholar, or are you not? It doesn’t matter! With this spectacular Google service you can find and read all of the latest research articles. In some cases a journal subscription may be required to read the full article, but in many cases it is not.

Media Review Aggregators:

Metacritic

Metacritic aggregates reviews on media from around the internet and gives media (movies, music, video games) a score based upon those reviews

Metacritic aggregates reviews on media from around the internet and gives media (movies, music, video games) a score based upon those reviews

  • Aggregates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs, and books. Gives a numerical score for each review with a color coding.

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes - the premier movie review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes – the premier movie review aggregator

  • Rotten Tomatoes is a movie review aggregator, that gives movies a binary rating of “fresh” or “rotten”
  • Actual humans decide whether or not the reviews are positive or negative, then tabulate the fresh reviews as a percentage of the total number reviewed. 60% positive reviews will get the movie a rating of fresh.
  • Rotten Tomatoes is one of the most popular movie review websites on the net

Job Site Aggregators:

Wowjobs Canada

WowJobs.ca brings Canadian job listings under one roof

WowJobs.ca brings Canadian job listings under one roof

  • WowJobs is a job posting aggregator for job postings all across Canada. This service will pick up postings from all the major employments sites such as Monster and Workopolis, in addition to postings from individual company sites and organizations.

Blog Posting Aggregators:

Technorati

Technorati is the internet's largest blog aggregator

Technorati is the internet’s largest blog aggregator

  • A web-based search engine for blogs with an easy to navigate categorical database of hundreds of thousands of blogs
    Browse popular blog postings from all areas of the net

Find me on Twitter: @jacbird and @masitblog

Do you have any suggestions of some less popular aggregators not mentioned here? Send me your comments and I’ll include them in my next installment!

Push vs. Pull on the Internet

A long time ago, I don’t think people gave push vs. pull systems too much thought when it came to the internet.  You searched for information via a search engine, visited web sites and checked your email.  Now, however, it seems that we are presented with two overall systems for accessing the information we want.

Push vs. Pull (as defined by me):

Push: The internet or program pushes the information to YOU.

Pull: YOU go and search for the information you want or need.

If you are interested to know how Wikipedia defines it (as marketing or supply chain terms) visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/push-pull_strategy

So based on the definitions given above, let’s look at a few examples:

– RSS Feeds
– SharePoint intranet portal (with or without alerts)
– FaceBook
– Email
– Internet Searching

Internet Technology Push / Pull Reason
RSS Feeds Push You sign up for which RSS feeds you want to receive, by using your favourite aggregator (such as the built-in Latest Headlines aggregator of Firefox, or a job search aggregator, or Bloglines, FeedDemon, or Google Reader ).
SharePoint Intranet Portal Push or Pull depending on whether or not you use alerts If you are using SharePoint for your company intranet or knowledgebase portal, this is basically a pull system, unless you are using alerts to alert you of new content added – then it becomes a push system.
FaceBook Push In my opinion, FaceBook is a push system, because of the frequency in which people update their status updates and add content.
Email Push Email is a push system, especially if you receive newsletters or articles via email, and it also depends on the frequency in which you check it.
Internet Searching Pull Google and Internet Searching is pull, since you are entering in a sequence of search terms, and pulling in the information you requested.

Find me on Twitter: jacbird