All of this means, simply, my career will continue as a technical writer. Honestly, I don't know whether I would stop being a technical writer if I had won the jackpot. I know I can write that now and think that now, but I really enjoy my work. I have achieved what my student teaching cooperating teacher encouraged me to do back in fall 1991. He told me I should find my bliss and to do what makes me happy. He also said I would know what I should be doing because it would give me energy.
Being a technical writer gives me energy. I work with great co-workers who want what I want - to create useful content. This year has been a breakthrough year for me as a technical writer. I sometimes remember the work I have done at previous companies. My workflow in other places would simply not work.
And that's a good thing. Changes and the challenges that come with change are what drive me. I definitely want to work smarter, not harder. When it comes to documentation, here's what I want to do every time I write.
- Communicate in such a way that the information can be understood and located.
- Write content once and reuse it when it's applicable. Software is a series of patterns that tend to behave the same way. I want the content I write to have patterns as well. I don't want the user to have to read a "how do I use this documentation" section in order to figure it out. Certainly, this is not a new concept in the world of technical writing, but it's a new concept in the way I approach my work. I could have used the current mentality I have about this when I worked at other employers. There was so much copying and pasting of content into multiple documents! It makes my skin crawl. Without a doubt in my mind, the major reason I had a huge list of projects to work on was because I didn't apply this concept.
- Use standards until they need to be broken. That's a paraphrased quote from my co-worker John. It's awesome to have standards but if those standards make the documentation cumbersome, unhelpful, or in any way hinders the user from obtaining the information needed to do their task, following the standard doesn't serve the user, who is the ultimate person that must be served.
As I step down from my technical writer soapbox and step up to my Metallica fanboy soapbox, the Lars Ulrich interview I just read is definitely relevant.
Here's the relevant part of the article that I want to draw a line to what I do every day.
Asked if there is anything "off the table" for a band like METALLICA, Ulrich tells Billboard magazine: "Increasingly in our career, absolutes don't play a role. The minute we have a conversation about 'what does the fan want?' we stop ourselves, because it's a lost cause. If you put 20 METALLICA fans around this table, they're going to tell you 20 different things. We really turn the conversation inward: 'What are we comfortable with? Is this something we feel we can get behind?' It's not about selling out, but whether it's selling our souls. As you lay in bed every night, [you ask yourself], 'Do I feel good about the choices I made?'"
Lars, I feel your pain when I feel it's a hopeless cause to serve the user! I can easily apply what he talks about to technical writing:
Asked if there is anything "off the table" for a technical writer, "Increasingly in our career, absolutes don't play a role. The minute we have a conversation about 'what does the user want?' we stop ourselves, because it's a lost cause. If you put 20 users who use the documentation we have written around this table, they're going to tell you 20 different things. [Instead], turn the conversation inward: 'What are we comfortable with? Is this something we feel we can get behind?'
Read the entire article here.
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