Writing articles and talks
Here is how to start sharing knowledge once and for all.
If you got this far, your challenge is to start an article or a talk right after you finish reading this. Do not disappoint me.
Writing articles and talks is a great thing because it is one way to share and decentralize knowledge, which is one of the mantras of hacker culture that I like to follow.
For some time I have been involved in organizing tech events. Today I am part of the content team at Campus Party Brasil and responsible for the event communities. Because of that I looked into how to give better talks and learned a few things along the way. I even took a course that was great not only for speaking, but also for self knowledge, and I highly recommend it. https://leonardocalixto.com.br/
Of course giving talks and writing an article are different things, but in my head a good talk starts with good planning, which can be an article. Imagine if every talk already had its own article. The world would be better.
Storytelling
You will not find much on this topic here, so I will leave a few links for you to go deeper. In short, a good article or talk is just a good story well told.
A story needs a beginning, middle, and end. For example, Little Red Riding Hood:
It starts with a girl: who she is, what she has, and what she needs to do.
In the middle, what she does with everything that was presented develops. The story creates tension and curiosity until it reaches the climax.
At the end, everything from the middle comes together in a solution. Everything fits and ends well.
Your article or talk should follow the same idea. Choose a small theme, because you do not want to write a book or give a movie talk. Lay out the points to start the story, build the reader’s curiosity, then explain each point brought up at the beginning, and finally reach a conclusion.
Tips and links
Look for articles and talks with a similar theme and analyze how they were built.
Talk about things you actually know. That does not mean you need to understand a subject 100% to speak about it. For example, I enjoy giving talks, but I am not trained in communication. I am still sharing experiences that worked for me and that are helpful for people starting out, and I do not go beyond what I do not know.
Afraid? Go anyway. Feedback matters. Worry if you only get positive feedback. Maybe people do not want to spend time discussing with you. If feedback is bad, even better, because you will have things to improve and new things to learn.
In talks, there is more than a storytelling line. There is tone of voice, posture, improvisation, humor, and so on. Stage techniques in general are not hard to learn online.
Illustrated TEDx speaker guide <http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/IllustratedTEDxSpeakerGuide.pdf>
A funny talk about why TEDs are so good. It is funny but you can extract some insights on how to build an engaging talk <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S0FDjFBj8o>
More references: talks about talks <https://www.ted.com/playlists/574/how_to_make_a_great_presentation>
A very good article on how to get started with articles <https://medium.com/trainingcenter/o-que-eu-devo-saber-para-escrever-artigos-1d6a6902d6bb>
Handy tips for technical articles <https://medium.com/@rosariopfernandes/writer-4195046ab0c4>
The famous design thinking for talks <https://medium.com/uxconfbr/como-criar-uma-apresenta%C3%A7%C3%A3o-inteira-antes-mesmo-de-abrir-o-powerpoint-fbdbebbbb3a6>
10 great tips <https://medium.com/uxconfbr/guia-para-palestrar-em-eventos-da-sua-comunidade-profissional-parte-i-4c2dc28553dd>
Accessible talks - <https://medium.com/uxconfbr/guia-para-eventos-acessiveis-como-fazer-apresentacoes-parte-i-137317610631>
From curious to influencer on Medium: how to write successful texts <https://valternascimento.com.br/como-escrever-textos-de-sucesso-no-medium-5cba69be8a1e>