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Jim Chevallier from N. Hollywood:
>One thing I love about this way of making money (which, as an actor, is
how I
>basically treat it) is the variety of actual assignments which fall under
the
>broad TW umbrella. Intellectually, it's stimulating. Materially, it's a
good
>basis for job security.
Sella Rush replied:
>I don't know whether my background helped or hindered for marketing
writing.
>I have a liberal arts degree with lots of technical learning, and I was
>embarrassed to discover I was really good at marketing writing, worse--I
>enjoyed it! As a change of pace. My background as a fiction writer might
>have played a part as well--as Ron mentions, there is an element of
>"story-telling", at least in my marketing writing.
Which allowed Nea Dodson to add:
>Marketing writing is still a form of explanation - only, instead of
>explaining how something works, you're explaining why someone should
>want to buy it. IMO, after the tech writer has learned a product well
>enough to write the manual, that writer is in the best position to write
>persuasive marketing copy due to familiarity with the product's
>strongest features.
The difference between the types of writing is interesting, and I don't
want to re-open
a debate about "what is" technical writing, but is it useful to
compartmentalize
so much? Writing is having something to say, keeping yourself in
the background, not affecting a breezy manner, and saying it! (Glibly
paraphrasing E.B. White.)
I especially like Ms. Rush's comment about being embarassed at discovering
(a perhaps latent) marketing talent!
A book I was fond of reading a last summer ( I've since moved on :-) ) is
Bob Bly's "Secrets of a Freelance Writer."
The book's advertised focus on "commercial writing" (writing for actual
pay! :-) ) lets it cover
brochures, business plans, user guides, reference manuals, annual reports,
direct marketing
letters, and so on--some things that would come under a definition of TW,
some that maybe would not.
If you're freelance you're probalby looking for *any* writing opportunity.
My lack of a point makes this a bad piece of writing.
