Core Dump

The always interesting Tom Johnson responds to a readers question and describes what a typical day for a technical writer is like. His typical day is a composite that contains tasks that he's done over several weeks, but it's a good summary -- I think I've done pretty much everything he's described at one point or another during my writing career.

Is technical writing satisfying? In a way, yes. I previously worked as a marketing copywriter. Sometimes I had a hard time feeling good about what I was writing, because I myself didn’t buy the products. I know technical writing helps people. Today I received an email from someone who mentioned they used the help and now they understand a difficult concept in the app. That felt good. With all the people out there who are confused by technology, who feel frustrated and try to find answers online or in help files, it feels satisfying to know I’m engaged in a good cause.

Through my examples above, I tried to show that technical writers do a lot more than writing. Very little time in the day is taken up by pure writing. There’s a lot of design, discovery, visuals and other tasks that writers do. My blog is actually what cures my itch to write.

His experience pretty much mirrors mine. I write here to scratch the more creative side of my writing itch -- my work is more analytical and structured. A lot of it involves editing too. But like Tom, I enjoy my career, and I'm glad I stumbled into it (and that's a story I'll tell here another time, if anyone is interested in hearing it).

Labels: technical communication