Do you want to have a superpower? If so, keep reading. Today I'll show you how a basic skill can become a powerful tool to boost your career.

Writing is one of the first skills we learn in childhood. But most of us don't expand it over time, we remain at the initial level, only knowing “how to write words”.

Until recently I thought there was nothing more to learn about writing: “I can take a pen and write a few words to make a sentence, what’s left?”. But in the last few months, I’ve met people who have shown me the importance of being a good writer and how powerful a message can be if you invest time in choosing words. Thank you, Filipe and Adrian.

I love sharing knowledge, so in the next few lines, I’ll tell you what I’ve learned recently about the benefits of improving my writing and what I’ve done (and am doing) to continue evolving.

The Benefits

I’ll divide this section into three items, which are intrinsically related to each other.

Grab the Reader’s Attention

No one likes to be ignored, right? It's easy to ignore a message and even easier to ignore a text. You probably ignored a lot of people today, perhaps in a chat, when scrolling LinkedIn, or in a forum thread.

The point is, it's hard to pay attention to someone, especially on the internet, where tons of information flash before your eyes every second.

However, good writing is an excellent tool to keep users attentive to your content. The best example is YouTube thumbnails and titles. The video with the most attractive title and thumbnail wins the user's attention. The same rule applies to texts, regardless of where they are used: emails, blog posts, product descriptions, website CTAs, etc.

Expand and Refine Your Wording

The more you write and read, the more words and phrases you'll learn to make your messages more readable and easier to understand.

This habit is also useful to avoid repetitions. Through the use of good synonyms, your content becomes more fluid.

Write More in Less Time

Practice leads to perfection. Our brain is plastic, meaning it is adaptable. In other words, you can train it to be good at something. As you write, new neural connections are created to facilitate this process.

After a few weeks of training, you will be able to write much more and better with less effort than at the beginning of your journey. Thinking about the next words and phrases will become a more natural process.

The brain is an extremely powerful processor, don't underestimate it.

Scenarios Where You Can Stand Out with Good Writing

This list could be endless, but let’s focus on cases that will make a difference in our development careers.

Getting in Touch

How can you stand out in someone’s inbox?

Remember, you are a human talking to another human. Don’t act like a bot or an advertiser. I know that when you contact someone, you are probably trying to ask or sell something. But wrap your main objective in a good message.

I’m not telling you to be manipulative, but a good communicator. The chances of getting what you want increase when you know how to use words to break the ice and prepare the ground to build a new organic relationship.

Responding to Emails

Now the roles are reversed. You are the recipient.

Again, don’t be a bot, be human. Sometimes a business contact or a new job offer is not interesting, but you don’t know if someone wrote an email specifically for you or if you were a victim of a bot. So, don’t be rude. Reply.

Say thank you, ask a question, try to help. I’ll use myself as an example. When I see a new contact about a job opportunity that I’m not interested in, I try to at least ask for some details and find out if I can share the opportunity with someone. Maybe I’m not a great help, but now I’m a real person in someone's network, not just a static profile picture.

Code Documentation

Writing good documentation and technical posts demonstrates what a good developer you are. Taking care with your words and the way you explain details, show examples, or summarize complex concepts reveals your commitment to sharing knowledge.

How to Start Writing

Study About It

There is a lot of material available to help you dive deeper into the “user reading experience” (URX - does this acronym exist? Maybe it does now). Research comparisons between good writing and bad writing, and learn how to create your swipe file (a collection of marketing and copywriting examples for inspiration).

Additionally, seek someone’s opinion on your texts and ask for suggestions for improvement. AI can help you a lot with this.

Make It a Habit

Every day you have opportunities to write something, but you might be ignoring them or not recognizing them. It’s not necessary to write a large text every day. You can take small notes, record your ideas, or write a draft blog post. However, writing a large text is a great exercise to practice all the concepts you’ve learned: clarity and textual coherence, engagement strategies, chaining of ideas, organization of topics, etc.

Write About Everything

I already commented on this in another post called How Not to Make Mistakes Twice. The idea for today is a little different, it’s about not just writing about one topic (like only technical things), but writing about everything. It could be about a travel experience, learning something new from a book, or writing about how writing is a great skill to have.

By doing this you will expand your vocabulary and ideas and improve your reasoning for dealing with different types of information and how to put it on paper.

Conclusion

I hope this post has inspired you and opened your eyes to the importance of writing. It can change your life.

I'm available if you want to talk about this.

See you next time.