I started my path as a tech writer almost by accident. Well, kind of. I did apply for the job, but I never thought I had a chance of getting it. The company I applied to is a high-profile company and I had yet to gain experience as a tech writer.
In the prerequisites, they said they were looking for someone with a college degree.
I had none.
I did go to college for a while but dropped out when I was offered my childhood dream job of building race cars.
I built race cars for the next sixteen years. When the company went out of business, I lost my job and needed to figure out something to do for a living.
I was burned out and never wanted to look at another race car anymore; let alone work on one. Besides, racing businesses in my area are not at all plentiful.
I decided to switch gears and try writing. I had written some stuff before and loved it. I had written a tech book about racing years ago which still sells well today. I had been told I had a good way of teaching and explaining things, so I started doing a little freelancing while I tried to figure out my next path in life.
I applied for a couple more jobs before getting the one I have now. When you don’t think you have a chance at something it can give you a little freedom to shoot from the hip and let your personality come out a little more. When you’re trying too hard to get something, I think we stifle your personality and give answers they think interviewers want rather than just letting their personality flourish.
When I did manage to get a phone interview, I kind of let it all hang out. You know, who would have thought I would have gotten this far?
Well, it worked out well. I got a second interview and was offered a job about a week later.
Now I’ve been here a year and have learned a ton.
First, layout and design are as much of a concern about the writing as the actual writing.
The layout and design are a big part of my job. Not only as a matter of corporate consistency but as a way to make the document readable and easily followed.
Just like copywriting. The object of the first line is to get people to read the second line.
The point of a good layout and design is to help the reader digest and understand the material. Help them keep reading.
I like to spread things out on technical drawings and diagrams to make the distinctions between illustration callouts and the actual diagram much more distinct. I like to make the diagrams as large and easy to see as possible; blowing the image up and getting the content I’m trying to illustrate as large as possible.
For example, why show the entire part when I can blow it up and show only a small part of it and make it easily viewable?
I break text into headings and subheadings. If you do any other type of writing, especially for the internet, this comes naturally. Everything is broken up into H1 and H2 tags. This helps readability and allows for skimability. Especially for a tech manual. You don’t want to force the reader to read long pieces of content if it is not relevant to the problem they want to solve.
This also leads us to hyperlinks. All of the books I publish have a digital final home. Some do get printed, and this won’t be as relevant, but this will make the digital version much more navigable.
I put all the hyperlinks in blue, so there is a little bonus in the printed version to break up the content. But, I use hyperlinks as much as possible to allow the reader to move around the document as easily as possible. This will also help reduce redundancy. If you can send someone to a location in the document that better breaks down an action, you will not have to restate everything in a second place.
Second, make your writing and the scripting as simple as possible.
I read somewhere, years ago, a majority of people only read on a seventh or eighth-grade level. So, why bother trying to write something at an upper level if the reader doesn’t read at that level? That being said, what you really should do is keep your reader in mind.
If you are writing content for manuals or instructions for doctors or lawyers, you should write their level or they might be frustrated or annoyed at the content reading at a lower level.
There is one idea in the copywriting industry that says content is king. I like to think of this more on the line as context is king.
The more you match your content to the audience you are writing for, the better received your content will be. In my job, I write very little to the average retail consumer. Most of the content I create is geared toward installation experts in the industry. They know many of the concepts of basic mechanical knowledge so I can take the explanations up to their level without worrying about making it simple enough for the general public to understand.
Much of the content I develop eliminates the use of articles like A, AN, and THE; especially if I am doing what I call ‘process documentation.’
This is usually numbers content to describe the process to do and action; such as dismantling something or maintenance processes. I do integrate some of this into situations where I can get the words to flow naturally, but this works in about any situation when regarding a step-by-step process.
Third, It’s all a collaborative process.
When I first got the job, I pictured it as a process of writing, editing, and then some sort of simple review. What I quickly found out was that creating content is a much more collaborative process. Several departments in the company all collaborate through the entire creation process to shape this book so it meets all the needs of their needs.
Each draft of the review process requires signoff by several divisions in the company, they make their small contribution to the end look and feel of the book.
It’s basically my job to pull it all together and shape this project into something which matches the demands of each department while still maintaining the company look and feel to all the documents.
Sometimes it isn’t so easy. Sometimes, I need to play referee and resolve differences between the different groups to get everything to work.
Everyone has a different opinion on how everything will come together. I like the challenge, but it does keep me on my toes.
The best thing about my tech writing job is I have the freedom to explore other things while still having a steady source of income to fall back on. I’m a worrier. I need to know I am making a steady decent income so I can clear my head and start exploring other things in life.
Yes, I don’t have the freedom I did as a freelancer, but I don’t have the headaches too.
Plus, being around other writers every day has helped me see how other writers handle different situations. You can get a little of this on the web, but it’s getting more difficult to separate propaganda of marketing from the actual truth.
The biggest thing my first year in tech writing taught me is there is so much more out there I want to explore. This is something just like everything else which, I suspect, I will get better at with age.