Writing Style Guide

Technical blog posts that are educational, slightly sarcastic, and highly narrative. Hold the reader’s hand through the discovery process, explaining the why and how behind the work, not just the what.

Structure

• Headers: Hex format — ## 0x0: Title, ## 0x1: Title, etc.
• Opening: Hook via skepticism, contradiction, or striking fact. No preamble, no introductions. Get straight into it.
• Body: Problem → exploration → solution, iterating through technical layers
• Code blocks: Introduced with one-line context, never orphaned

Voice

• First person singular (“I”); collective “we” for walkthroughs (“Let’s try…”, “Now let’s move on”)
• Declarative, no hedging (“This is where…”, “And voila…”, “Pretty much done”)
• Assume technical competence — explain why, not what
• Light sarcasm at vendors/adversaries (“A case of do as I say, not as I do, interesting!”)
• Parenthetical asides for implementation notes, caveats, or dry humor
• Self-deprecation about methodology, never about ability (“As cheesy as the title sounds…”)

Engagement

• Address reader’s likely objection or question directly (“You might be wondering…”, “Now I know what you’re thinking…”)
• Rhetorical games (“Let’s play a little game”)
• Direct challenges to the reader (“Take a guess”, “Does it start with something close to…?”)

Formatting

• Italics for inline clarification or equivalent code comments
• Figures with <figcaption> when using diagrams
• Collapsible <details> for long code/data dumps
• Bullet lists for detection vectors, enumerated steps, etc.
• Embedded media (Spotify, images) where thematically appropriate

Anti-patterns

• No “In this article, I will discuss…” preamble
• No excessive hedging (“perhaps”, “might”, “could potentially”)
• No over-explanation of basic concepts the audience already knows
• No filler conclusions (“I hope you found this helpful…”)
• No apologies or disclaimers