One of my goals when starting this site was to knock out a blog post every week documenting my coding journey. This task seemed easy and achievable but after struggling through my first three posts I realized I didn’t really know how to write. A blog post every week became more of a chore and less of the free-flowing creative exercise I thought it would be.

I was constantly running into questions about punctuation, grammar, and the flow of blog posts. Familiar with the wireframing process for the layout of websites and apps, there was probably some process to organize the structure of my writing. I just needed to learn how.

To improve my writing for blogs specifically, I turned to Google and read Amazon reviews for recommended books. This led me to buy Everybody Writes by Ann Handley. Honestly, I struck gold. It included all the advice I was looking for and more I didn’t know I needed.

“Everybody Writes is designed to be your go-to guide for creating or publishing any kind of online content- whether you’re working for a big brand or a small business… or yourself.”

At first, I was surprised by the size of the book. It holds like a novel and reads easily like a comedian’s memoir. Even though the content is very comprehensive, it is organized well and to the point.  I felt like I met a new friend that shared her juicy secrets of the online marketing world with me over pedicures and mimosas.

As I started reading this book I immediately identified as one of the many people she was writing for. Really understanding that everyone is a writer whether they think they are or not. She makes writing better seem possible and not some huge undertaking.

“The truth is this: writing well is part habit, part knowledge of some fundamental rules, and part giving a damn.” Ann writes on the first page.

I definitely give a damn. I can learn the fundamental rules but writing as a habit… that will take the most work for me. To become a better writer, you must write. Something I try to keep in mind for coding as well. I should probably also add going to the gym as a habit-in-progress.

Everybody Writes is full of useful information. Every page included smart advice and entertaining examples. I got very lucky choosing this as my first how-to-write book and feel like any other one will now just be disappointing.

I highly recommend this book to everybody since, after all, everybody writes.