Comments on: The Downside of Technical Writing

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:56:00 +0000

Ooo, there’s some gripping stuff! Amanda, I feel your pain. I had to write life insurance courses based on state insurance laws. I tell you, I was all a-flutter with excitement every morning (woo).

By: Amanda Nicole

Amanda Nicole — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:49:00 +0000

I once had an ongoing gig writing all about state-funded mortgage loans. YAWN. It was difficult to gear up for work every day, but it paid well, so I endured.

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:50:00 +0000

Then you must read “In Search of Schroedinger’s Cat” by John Gribbin. It just blows your mind!

Catherine, I have no trouble switching over, either. I think you’re right – our business brains can attack the necessary details a bit better. 🙂

By: Catherine @ Sharp Words

Catherine @ Sharp Words — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:56:00 +0000

Personally, I love writing techically – I write software manuals. It’s not so much the writing though as the chance to play around with computers a lot; plus I enjoy the information design and research aspects of producing manuals.

That said, I very much enjoy switching my brain over to writing fiction once in a while – and I think that I’m better at it for knowing how to write in a more business-like style.

By: writtenexpressions

writtenexpressions — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:42:00 +0000

I hear ya--before I became a freelancer, I spent more than 6 years writing the marketing collateral for a health care company.

Now that I'm doing my own thing, I'm still pigeonholed as a "health care writer". Instead of fighting it, I've decided to embrace it. When I get a project that's not health care-related, I just see it as my reward for slogging through the non-so-exciting stuff.

And I do know about Schroedinger's cat, but only because I watch a lot of TV (anybody catch last night's rerun of The Big Bang Theory?)