Even Technical Blogs Need Stories
Technical content is (usually) pretty boring. Even if you’re in the industry, it’s hard to swim through all the jargon in a technical blog post. Fast historical syncs, data segmentation, enterprise service buses, artificial intelligence engines …
To quote the Frank Zappa hit Valley Girl: “Gag me with a spoon!”
If you’re writing a technical blog post, you need to remember some simple facts:
Tell a story: Stories keep your blog post out of Snoozeville.
Cut the jargon: Use language that people actually want to read.
Be human: Remember you’re a human writing for other humans. Technical people are people too!
What’s a story?
The word “story” is overloaded. You might be thinking you need characters, a plotline, and a dramatic climax. None of that is necessary.
The whole point of the story is a connected series of thoughts throughout your article. If you start a post talking about the challenges of progressive enhancement, you don’t need a character to tell a story. The challenges themselves are the characters in your story! Don’t start off talking about challenges and leave the reader hanging without resolution. When you introduce a challenge, even one about graceful degradation in user interfaces, that challenge needs a resolution.
Don’t leave the reader hanging! Solve for the challenge you introduced in the beginning of the article.
In its simplest terms, a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A simple technical story arc can be:
Technical problem (Beginning)
Implementation challenges (Middle)
Resolution and results (End)
See? Nothing fancy.
Why cut the jargon?
Technical writers use jargon to prove something to themselves or to the reader. Here’s what I think when I see people using jargon:
Look how smart I am.
You should believe me.
I am so experienced.
Can you believe how many technical words I know?
It drives me crazy. Some of the best uses of jargon in writing are in Michael Crichton or Isaac Asimov novels. If you read Jurassic Park or The Andromeda Strain, you’ll notice how technical these books are, but the stories stand out even more.
And if we’re talking about non-fiction, check out any Richard Feynman books. One of my favorites is Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman. What an entertaining collection of stories. Some of them are about very technical theoretical concepts in physics. Yet the whole book is entertaining and a pleasure to read.
Why?
Feynman never felt the need to prove himself.
When you’re writing about something technical, you need to know how to reach a broader audience. Is everyone who will read your blog an expert in what you’re writing about? No. The point of a blog post is to make sharable content that gets your message across to the largest applicable audience.
If you write 3,000 words about kernel extensions, think about why you need so many words. Are you trying to prove yourself — or are you just trying to accurately get your point across? If it’s the first, stop. If it’s the second, think about how to simplify without losing accuracy. You can be technically accurate while telling a story and proving your business use cases and not using 3,000 words. This should not be a technical manual.
How do I sound like a human?
I know this question sounds ridiculous. How do I sound like a human? For real? Well, here’s what I do: I try to write like I talk.
First, I imagine I’m talking to the reader. Let’s say I’m at a coffee shop and I meet you (yes, you, the reader). We start talking about this stuff: writing technical blog posts, telling stories, cutting jargon, being human, yada yada. I’m literally typing out what I would say to you in person.
Is it engaging? I hope so!
Might it be boring? Perhaps!
The thing is, I’m never trying to prove myself. The only reason I have credibility is because I know what not to say. I know what to cut.
I’m not here to impress you. I couldn’t care less if you’re impressed, just like I wouldn’t care if you were impressed with me if we met in person. The whole point is to write something I enjoy and have a fun (one-way) conversation with you.
And hopefully you walk away from this learning something, or at least being entertained.
Imagine talking to, say, a scientist who studies macromolecular synthesis and cellular function. Are you going to both understand and be interested when that scientist starts talking about nucleic acid chemistry?
Probably not, even if you did really well in high school biology class. But if the person said “Well actually I study the placenta and how it affect maternal and fetal health,” you’ll understand what they do and maybe even want to learn more.
Need help?
Having worked with dozens of people on this type of writing, I know it’s a lot harder than it sounds. We all sit down at the keyboard and think, “Okay… what should I say? How should I say it? What do I need to communicate?”
It ain’t easy, folks!
This is why Edify Content even exists. We’re literally here to help you tell stories, cut jargon, and sound human. That’s, like, our mission. Or something.
If you want some help reaching your audience without sacrificing technical know-how, just reach out or email us at hello@edifycontent.com. We’d love to talk!
