The mesmerizing beauty of words looks beyond the fascinating world, fathoms into the deep oceans and searches the hidden treasure at the bottom of the sea. It goes deeper into soul searching, unveils the untold story, captivates the whirlwind of the emotional mind; find many such things which are ruthless and disturbing yet find meaning when it is narrated. However, there are writings which do not relate to any of such things and technical writing could be one of them.
Technical writing as my present profession, I do not have vast experience writing user manual, online help, tutorials, release notes, admin guides, install guides and quick start guides, just to name a few. I came into technical writing by accident or call it by chance. Again from non-writing career to writing career was also merely luck. As a freelancer I had chances of getting published quite a number of times before I got a break into writing career. But these publications never gave me slightest of idea that I too can make writing a career. When hit by the recession in my non-writing career, I thought of doing many things to make my living but writing was no where closer to my thought even in dreams. This could be because I never thought that I can make it as a career primarily due to the fact that I was not able to assess my ability to write for a living. Though I love writing, I never believed that I could write well. So, one fine morning when I realized that I had little money to last beyond few days to feed me, I thought of giving it a shot and then figured out a small advertisement in the newspaper seeking freelance writer.
I went straight away to meet the editor and after a small introduction he agreed to give me a try. He gave me a topic and asked me to deliver the write-up within a couple of days. The first draft of the write-up was impressive and he asked me to work on it in detail and with final typeset and proofreading he made it the cover feature of the magazine. That made up my confidence and I realized that I can do it. Then on writing has been able to sustain me, feed me, and give me a place among the professionals. Well the freelancer tags remained just for a few months initially and I got a break into a monthly magazine which gave me a platform to regularly contribute to the magazine, liaison with resource people, do public relation job, organize press meet and be the part of the other press meet too. Pressman’s job had always fancied me from the beginning but I never knew the rigours of their hard work and pittance pay cheque. All I had seen was the glamorous few big names in the industry who are idolized enjoying the life of journalism profession. But at the same time the larger mass kept on toiling just to get even recognized and forget about getting their due.
The big names were not only wonderful writers but powerful speaker, manipulators, shrewd detectives, and good in powerful public relations. Yes! The journalism career is mixed of all this. Even one element is missing in you; it can get others taking over you. You can remain a good writer but can never be a good journalist. In case if you are coming from an orthodox background and can not mixed with the polluted surroundings and the corrupt people, better re-look into yourself what you want from journalism. It is not everyone’s bait. Well, with brief stint of so called journalism career, I had disagreement umpteen times with my peers and the editors, managed and survived, cajoled and cowed down. In between all this, as the mind found solace of being in the writing world, hunger haunted continuously. I could hardly sustain the taunt of happy mind and empty stomach.
Then I realized, hunger can not breed the beauty of words. Search and the alternatives are two things which can give insight to look beyond the horizon. First, I off loaded the journalism tag to become a medical writer, then an academic writer for shorter period of one year each. But both these in the silicon city of India without realizing that even the silicon industry would be hiring writers to work for their task force. And these writers would be called technical writers.
Kudos to naukri dot com, which made inroads as online job portal and gave an opportunity for the job seekers to post their profile free of cost. Similarly it gave the opportunity for the employers to look for the potential employee from the data base. I too posted my profile and to my luck, looking at my previous writing experience, one prospective software employer wanted to test my ability to see whether I can fit into their basket.
There was a written test, a technical test and the face to face interview, to see whether I can learn things faster and implement that into the work. And that’s how I wore the tag of a technical writer. The very question, do you like technical writing, sometimes puts me off. I do not like to answer this question being my true self. But often this question keeps on coming to successive interviews and I ought to answer this. However, how often you can lie. This question becomes the part of the recorded test which is done by pen and paper. Initially you makeover, wear a mask, try lying, misleading and boasting that you love technology and you want to write about it. But not longer you can lie to yourself. True, I like writing but may not be technical writing. Then why do I become a technical writer.
The answer is, it gives me money and status of being a successful writer, where I can boast that my writing sells. My writing has value for money. My writing is part of the requirement; it is not just the fanciful world of time pass. My writing helps people complete a task; my writing helps people understand a software or hardware product. It is truly meaningful and that’s what gives me satisfaction of being a technical writer. I might aspire to create different piece of writing of my choice but in my professional work sphere I am just a technical writer and I value writing the technical manuals. Some times when I ponder upon thinking what to say when people ask me about my profession. I can definitely say, I am a writer and a technical writer specialist.
