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I realize I'm coming in on this thread a bit late, but everyime the
whole technical writing/fiction writing issue comes up, I want to
contribute, and refrain because I'm behind in my reading of the
digests. I finally realized that if I wait until I'm caught up, I'll
never contribute, so ...
I'm not sure whether I fall into the category the original poster was
thinking about. I developed an interest in fiction writing early in
life, and eventually did start sending stories out, but never sold
anything. I did, however, earn personal comments from some editors, on
the order of, "This is nicely written, BUT ... "
In retrospect, a lot of the reasons editors gave me for rejecting my
work were probably suggesting I was better suited for technical writing.
I was too insistent on explaining things. I was good at describing
objects and event, but not at creating sympathetic characters and
evoking real human emotions.
Which leads me to the main point I wanted to make. It has been said
many times on this list that writing well is not enough to make you a
good technical writer. You also gotta understand what you're writing
about. I submit that this is true of fiction writing as well.
Apparently, I'm better at understating how hardware and software works
than I am at understanding people and emotions.
So I ended up in technical writing because I like to write, but knew
fiction writing wasn't going to work as a career. I haven't given up on
it though. In fact, I'm working on a story *about* a technical writer.
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