Event Recap: Blog Writing Best Practices Workshop
Every city has a story to tell
What do public art, bicycle parking, community gardens, and the housing crisis have in common? They all have stories worth telling about the cities we live in!
On September 16, Women in Urbanism Canada (WiUC) hosted a free virtual Blog Writing Best Practices Workshop that brought together participants from across Canada to explore the impact of writing on gender equity and urbanism. The workshop offered an opportunity to learn, exchange perspectives, and put our writing skills into practice.
Why write about gender equity and urbanism?
We began with showing why writing matters when tackling complex urban issues such as those around housing, mobility, public space, and accessibility. The way our cities are designed affects us all, but not everyone experiences them in the same way. Lived experiences are essential to understanding these challenges, and writing is a powerful and accessible way to share these perspectives, raise awareness, and contribute to a growing knowledge base on gender equity and urbanism.
Then, we explored the many ways to tell these stories: personal reflections, policy analysis, case studies, photo essays and more. Because blog writing comes in all shapes and sizes, we encouraged workshop participants to find the format that best suits their topic, perspective, and the story they want to tell. From there, we drew from examples on our past blogs such as How to Build Public Spaces for Teen Girls, Why Public Washrooms aren’t Working for Women, How Toxic Masculinity Drives Car Culture. We shared practical tips on how to make writing engaging, accessible, and credible—from crafting compelling titles to using plain language, the right visuals, and reliable sources.
An example from WiUC’s blog, “How to Build Public Spaces for Teen Girls”, used during the workshop to explore how titles, images, quotes, and credible resources can strengthen a blog.
Good blogs start with good ideas
Of course, what better way to learn about writing than to give it a try? For the interactive portion of our workshop, we invited participants to brainstorm topics they were interested in exploring. Our Mentimeter word cloud quickly filled up with ideas, including “winter cities”, “third places”, “newcomer” “women's communities”, “cycling”, and “how women use parks”.
Participants shared their blog ideas through an interactive Mentimeter poll, covering everything from public art and mobility justice to community gardens and housing.
From ideas to stories
With so many ideas to work with, participants then spent time developing their own blog outlines using six guiding questions: What, Where, Who, Why, How, and Now What? The exercise encouraged everyone to identify the issue they wanted to explore, consider who it affects and why it matters, and think about what they wanted readers to take away from their writing.
We wrapped up with a group reflection on the writing process, including what participants learned and the challenges they encountered. One participant expressed their appreciation for a structured approach to the writing:
“I can see that going through this outline process will help to make the writing more intentional and focused, very helpful tips!”
Another participant expressed their interest in writing about women’s historical relationship to public parks when drafting their outline, and reflected on how they could connect this history to the present:
“[W]e should feel empowered to drive social change today, [because] women of the 19th century took parks and recreation into their own hands, breaking out of the expectations placed upon them about their presence in public parks. I will continue thinking about how to make this topic [relevant] to women today.”
Here’s to supporting a growing community of urban storytellers!
For our team, it was exciting to see the workshop evolve from talking about why storytelling matters to watching participants begin developing stories of their own. We especially enjoyed seeing the range of topics and perspectives brought into the event and creating a space where participants could learn from one another while getting their ideas onto the page.
We hope participants left the event with new ideas, practical writing tools, and the confidence to share their perspectives on the cities and communities they care about.
Women in Urbanism Canada staff smile for a group screenshot at the end of the workshop.
Whether you're an experienced writer or just getting started, we encourage you to keep exploring, asking questions, and sharing your stories. Every blog you put out to the world can help us better understand the places we call home.
