Re: Getting started in tech writing...

[Tom Campbell <tomcampbell -at- EUDORAMAIL -dot- COM>]

OK, you asked for it (sorry, long post, but it was longer til I edited it)...

>>Should we start a thread on "How I got started in tech writing"? It may
>>be enlightening to see how many of us just kind of fell into it while
>>doing something else.

I'm one of those people who didn't set out to become technical writers but found that our aptitudes and experience prepared us well for the profession.  My other major resources have been 1) sharp, helpful colleagues and 2) my willingness to dig in and explore until I figure out how to do something.

When I was growing up in the 18...er, 1960s in a little log cabin next door to Reuven Frank, I too had a chemistry set.  I mixed up tinctures and powders and learned to spell phenolphthalein.  I built an AM radio from a kit, and played around with a toy plastic binary computer.  I read science fiction, and I read the encyclopedia for fun.  I got a grammar-school-level understanding of paleontology, geology, and anthropology.

I was *interested* in science, but I was *good* at writing.  Throughout school and college I was fortunate to have a few excellent writing teachers (and a couple of excellent science teachers, too).  I took four years of Latin and worked on my high school newspaper.

In college I was good at anything involving writing, and not so hot at science (he confessed).  I majored in broadcasting and minored in English.  I took printing courses where we hand-set lead type and used old presses. Somewhere late in my academic career, I realized I liked writing better than broadcasting, and I didn't want to live in a podunk market to get started in the b'cast biz.

After graduation (from the Univ. of Alabama, whose walls are covered with kudzu, not ivy) and brief stints in the petroleum business (pumping gas) and the restaurant business (delivering pizzas), I landed a hellish but educational job working for a chain of Atlanta weekly newspapers.  There I learned about proofreader's marks, computerized typesetting, copyfitting, style manuals, writing to 8th-grade level, working for sadistic management, and working until you drop.  In 1-1/2 years I worked as a sports editor, news reporter, and editor.

Next I worked for a year on an adhesives industry trade magazine.  (For years, people asked me how to glue a broken teacup back together.  Answer: Epoxy, not cyanoacrylate [e.g. Krazy Glue], which has less shear strength.)  One duty there was researching new patents and writing short descriptions of them for the magazine.  This taught me that it can be fun to organize and "translate" technical material.  (And that there are a lot of really weird patents out there.)  I also edited abstruse papers by Ph.D chemists--not daring to modify much of the technical content--and wrote product announcements and news briefs.

I then worked for a year as an "editor/proofreader" for a regional solar energy center funded by the federal government.  Here I first experienced the joy of editing prose written by engineers.  They got mad at me a few times, even though my job was merely to 1) help readers understand what they were trying to say and 2) make them look smarter in the process.  I also wrote a style manual there.

When funding dwindled, and 80% of the staff had lost their jobs, my duties grew to include running the copy machine and taking mail to the post office.  (Tell me how you really feel about writers, guys!  Oh well, at least I still had a job.)

Then I took an editorial job at an insurance trade association, where for five years I worked on a magazine and wrote & edited financial reports, newsletters, and other publications.  In the meantime I wrote freelance newspaper and magazine articles, mostly about music.

During this period (early to mid-1980s) I started learning about computers.  At home I got a couple of stone age computers and learned how to write elementary BASIC and DOS programs, install cards, and use a few applications.  At work I used a DEC word processor and mainframe and learned a fair number of tricks.  I became known as a "power user" to some of the people in the IS division of the company, which helped pave the way for my next job there.  Also, for their magazine I wrote a few feature articles about IS developments in the insurance biz, which helped management see me as somebody with an affinity for technology.

In my second five years with that company, I managed a two-person desktop publishing operation.  I was responsible for minor system maintenance and backups on a VAXStation, as well as learning the ins and outs of Interleaf and training another person.  I also learned a little about networking.  Somewhere in there I discovered SGML and added tags to a mainframe database to semi-automate the process of producing a nicely formatted directory with thousands of entries.

My next job was Something Completely Different, coordinating a regional arts program.  But in that job I still gained computer knowledge.  Once when I had an imminent deadline on a major directory project, our sole IS person had a three-week honeymoon pending.  I got her to teach me some basic FoxPro commands before she got hitched, and I got what I needed out of the database, then importing the data into PageMaker to create the directory.

In that job I was working with several people who were Not Exceedingly Technical, so I would occasionally write memos and short procedures for doing things like creating Word templates, doing backups, and formatting floppies (you think I'm kidding!).

After 3-1/2 years, when I started networking to make my next move, among my contacts was a friend who happened to be a technical writer.  He put in a good word for me at his agency.  In the meantime, I learned enough about WinHelp (without RoboHelp or any other tool) to create a Help version of my résumé, which impressed them.  I had also created a fairly complex web site, which they liked.  And I passed their writing skills test with no trouble.  They convinced one of their clients to take a chance on me.  A few weeks later I was part of a team working on computer-based training courses for a big computer company.  ("Two weeks ago I couldn't spel tecknicle riter; now I are one!")

For the first few weeks, I kept thinking they'd figure out I wasn't a Real Technical Writer and I'd be out on my ear.  But before long instructional designers, developers, subject-matter experts, and other writers were saying my work was good, and I was even being asked to finish the work of others who had been invited out (including some who had not only impressive experience but advanced degrees in the field!).

Since then I've worked for a major telecom company as a trainer and technical writer, and for the IS division of a cable TV channel (oddly, coming full circle back to my college degree in broadcasting!).

Of course, when I talk to recruiters, many of them are only interested in whether my résumé contains those three magic words: Word, RoboHelp, and FrameMaker.  But it's the experience I've described above that has helped me become a technical writer.  I continue to learn new things all the time and work on interesting projects, which--along with being able to comfortably pay the rent--makes it worthwhile.

So that's the rather long-winded story of my 20-year overnight success as a technical writer!

---
Tom Campbell
tomcampbell -at- EUDORAMAIL -dot- COM
------------------------
 "It's as large as life
  and twice as natural!"
        --Lewis Carroll
------------------------



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