All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.
29Dealing with Change
There is nothing in life, that is as certain as change. It is not easy to leave our comfort zone, because there is always something good and something bad accompanied with change. The question is how we deal with it, when the wind of change come to our house - do we close the doors or build wind mills?
Hi! It seems to me that you are very well versed in your profession, have you thought about starting a channel or creating a course on technical writing? It seems to me that this is very relevant now, and it will help you earn more. I also decided to try to do this, although there were problems with uploading videos to YouTube, most likely because of the non-mobile format. If the same problem arises, I'll leave it here just in case, it may come in handy. www.movavi.com/support/how-to/how-to-convert-mov-to-mp4.html
Very interesting and useful, thanks to the author! I like these things, this kind of posts has always attracted me. I recommend that you also study the lottery essays, the link to which for you https://studydriver.com/the-lottery-essay/, you will learn about many secrets, facts, historical statements, stories from books, novels, films and a lot of interesting things, go and study now. Thus, it is doubly useful, and experience in writing such materials, and new knowledge in a certain area, good luck!
Some time ago I was also interested in a career of a technical writer, but changed my mind and chose another one. I do not regret, but still it was interesting to read this. Fascinating article.
This post is old but I am new to technical writing and could use some advice. What I do might not be as "technical" as what I've ben reading on this site. I create work instructions for a large manufacturing company, which also means going through old work instructions and making sure they are up-to-date. I guess my problem is that I'm getting quite a bit of push back from some areas of the company that maybe feel I'm looking over their shoulder to see if they are doing their job correctly, when what I was sold on before taking the position was working as a team to improve. I just don't know how to deal with some of the negativity that is seemingly being projected onto my position.
interesting. i would think that people would welcome efforts to update the information. i'm not sure that i have any advice for dealing with the negativity other than to perhaps frame it in a way that doesn't come across as undercutting the person's authority or previous work? not sure.
Beginner tech writer here. Great post, thanks for all the details.
Out of curiosity, what tools do you use. I'm a newbie technical writer and am still testing out HATs. So far http://helpndoc.com/ has been my favorite, and it's free so I don't mind getting attached to it :)
What would you say is the easiest "pro" tool for a beginner to use?
Where you describe your day as a technical writer, I don't see any writing being done. I wonder if there is a particular point you were trying to make? The description seems a little tongue-in-cheek, as it is obvious you do a lot of writing, but it brings up for me what I see as a problem in the profession--that most writers don't like to actually write and to avoid it will do just about anything else.
In every situation where I've worked with other writers (been doing mostly contract work for a long time), I typically did 90% of the work, and that is no exaggeration. I saw a lot of just poking at their keyboard a bit, staring at their screen, a lot of gabbing about how much work they have to do and other complaining, extreme reluctance to make a phone call or go talk to an SME, and once they do get something "on paper," they hold onto it like it's golden and are reluctant to self-edit or, heaven forbid, throw something out and start over. Not long ago, while working with a large team working remotely, I observed highly paid writers stretching out a couple 3-4 page assignments for months. I knew this because we had 2-3 project review meetings a week. I won't even get into the quality of the writing.
My theory is it just comes down to laziness, that writers convince themselves they're doing work when they're actually being unproductive, not really caring about getting the job done asap (as that would involve the pain of starting something new). I actually like the work. I get a big kick out of applying my creativity and solving problems.
On your note that a writer may feel creatively stifled as a technical writer--that is only a mindset. Technical writing is a constant exercising of one's problem-solving skills. How much creativity one puts into it is only limited by one's desire to put their creativity into it. Maybe that's what limits technical writers' productivity. It's hard work to focus one's creativity for 8-10 hours a day.
I did have a bullet that says, "Update docs with info about the new features for upcoming releases...." This is writing. I didn't list times for each activity, so this could be 2+ hrs or more.
But you're right that I listed a lot of non-writing activities in my day. Maybe I am trying to point out that tech writing involves a lot more than just sitting down to write. You have to gather information, verify its accuracy, set up your authoring and publishing tools, interact with engineers, and more.
Do some tech writers write more than others? Sure, but it's too judgmental to attribute this to laziness. Tech writing isn't like writing a novel, where you get into a creative groove and just let the words flow. It requires a lot more research and testing before you can even know what to write. Even then, the writing needs to be concise and clear.
Anyway, if you would like to share more about your typical day as a technical writer, I'd like to hear it. I also tend to support the tech comm tooling in my groups, so there may be a slant to this here.
Hey guys!
I wonder if you can help me - I am looking for a API Technical Writer to help with an open standard for persistent, decentralised communication, really cool project to be a part of!
Anybody know anyone?!
up to £70,000 per year.
would a remote writer work? I'm curious and interested abou this.
"Sell your car and ride a bike," you are inspiring!
"a remote team in Sri Lanka" - What a pleasant surprise. I am from Sri Lanka.
I am the only tech writer at my company as well, and I also handle our social media and most of our copyrighting. To help with organization and communication between me and the developers, we implemented a best practice for developers to check an "Update Docs?" box whenever a new or updated feature needs to be documented. Whenever a developer puts in a ticket that requires a doc update, I get an email, and I can add a note to my calendar/to-do list to meet with them. This has been so helpful to me. It means way less time digging through release notes and JIRA tickets trying to keep up with changes. Do you have any best practices that you recommend?
if they actually tick the box, or even recognize it will impact tech. docs in the first place! :)
Make it a required field ;-)
I really like your advice that people should blog regularly and write about things they had experienced or simply, express their thoughts. Great post!