Re: Burnout?

[Becca Price <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

The folks who recommended that you take a vacation are right -
it sounds like you really need one.

> 
> To those of you who are long-time technical writers, is this
> common? Is it 
> a passing phase or did I pick the wrong profession?

yeah, you might have picked the wrong profession... on the other
hand, sometimes even after 20(murfle) years in the profession, I
still love it - and I still get depressed sometimes, thinking of
how meaningless most of my work is...maybe 99% of the people who
should read my manuals don't... so I write it for the one
percent who does.

It also helps to get a job where you care about what you're
documenting.  I've had a number of positions where I was
churning out stuff "because our boss says we have to have
documentation" on topics I really didn't care a flying flip
about - in the Great Scheme of Things, it really didn't matter
what I wrote.  I could have created topic after topic of help
files saying "mashed potatos and gravy" over and over again, and
it would have been as meaningful as all my careful procedures.

I've had one or two (including the one I currently have) where
documentation was *important* - people could get badly injured
or killed if my writing was sloppy.  Or other, less bloody but
intellectually as disasterous events could happen.

Ask yourself - is it the work you don't like, or the topic on
which you're writing? 

and ... hang in there, Surfer.  It gets better.

-Becca


=====
------------------
Becca Price
beccap -at- rust -dot- net (primary address)

There's no such thing as useless information, only information for which you haven't found a use yet.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 
a year!  http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-Based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 ($100 STC Discount)
**WEST COAST LOCATIONS** San Jose (Mar 1-2), San Francisco (Apr 16-17)
http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.

Sponsored by ForeFront, Inc., maker of ForeHelp Help authoring tools
for print, WinHelp, HTML Help, JavaHelp, and cross-platform InterHelp
See www.forehelp.com for more information and free evaluation downloads

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.