Technical Writing for the Creative Writer

This last week at work involved a lot of technical writing with Statement of Work documentation for various processes and services that our department offers. At first it seemed to be a very daunting task. After all, technical writing is essentially devoid of flowery or descriptive text for a reason. But in the end it worked out fine.

I just wish I could spend 10 hours a day writing the stuff I want to write. You know what I mean? And it kind of stinks feeling all written out after spending that much time sitting in front of the computer researching and typing, researching and typing.

But of course, life isn't as simple as just work and hobbies is it? The neighborhood I live in is dealing with some tough issues. I'll tell you what, I'll never move into another Home Owner Association community ever again! I'd basically given up, washed my hands of the matter and decided to just pay the bill and move on with life. But then the Board tried to push through some new covenants, restrictions, and bylaws that effectively stripped the homeowners of their ability to regulate the Board's actions and remove Officers from office. I'm not sure what it is, maybe the fact that I spent 6 years of my life in the military "defending freedom"? Or maybe it's because I just don't like other people trying to infringe on my rights, but when I saw the new proposed changes I couldn't help but stand up and get involved again. To start off, that meant writing up some posts to the community blog explaining some of the things that had happened behind the scenes with the Board before I tossed in the towel. More writing, but not exactly the type that I was hoping to do if you know what I mean.

Even in the face of all of this, I am determined to make some time to write this weekend. And look at this! I've already written a blog post about some of the issues that technical writing can create for the creative writer. So what are some of these issues?

Writing fatigue is a major one. When you spend all day writing technical documentation, it can be hard to sit and write more. If you do your writing on a computer, you might experience pain or discomfort staring at the screen or typing on the keyboard. I guess the best thing I can recommend is that you try to get some air, step out of the room, maybe go outside, but get out of the environment to help clear your head. In my case, I just put off my writing for the weekend, but do whatever works for you.

Mixing technique. By virtue, technical writing is much different than creative writing. Technical documents are straight to the point, they spell out the ins and the outs and they leave no room for creative interpretations. A technical document is written to be the law. A creative document is much different, it isn't the law per se, but a story. It could be creative fiction or creative non-fiction, it doesn't really matter. The creative part is only a description of the style of the writing - or perhaps a better explanation is that it is a description of the relationship between the writer and the reader.

Another issue that I find is that it is actually sometimes easier for me to write technical documents for the company I work for because no one really cares about who I am when they read them. The writing is generally accepted because the information is correct and there is no relationship to be established like when I write as a hobby for my creative endeavors. I'm not just writing a story, heavens no. When I write, I am building a relationship with my reader - a person that I may never meet. I don't know their background, their interests, and yet I take upon myself the task of writing a story that will touch a part of their soul and make the read worth while. After long sessions of technical writing, it can be daunting to work on that relationship and switch gears from omnipotent overlord to a weaver of tales.

One Word at a Time

I've been trying to think of what to say lately and nothing really seems to do the trick in my mind. You see, there's this awkwardness here, like an impervious silence in a full room. Of course, I can't wait for you to say something. It just doesn't work that way. Besides, you don't even know what's happened.

Life is full of decisions: how we decide to react to circumstances both within and outside of our control, what we decide to take ownership of... these decisions define us. The choices we make become who we are.

Instead of taking responsibility for his shortcomings, one of the individuals that lost his job earlier this summer decided to place the blame elsewhere. Apparently that means that taking my pictures off my blog and posting them to various places on the web with defaming comments is justified. I won't get into what was said, but it was enough for me to open up a case with the local police department. That in itself says something. I'm not one to be bothered by run-of-the-mill slander attacks, but this was above and beyond what might be considered within reason.

Where does it go from here? I'm not sure. They've assigned a detective to the case but I haven't heard anything yet. They said it could take a while to subpoena the websites where the content was uploaded. The process isn't fun, that's for sure.

In other news, I burned the skin off my right ankle this weekend. Whew! I'll have to post a picture, it's a bit gruesome. No worries though, I can still walk around just fine - it's a bit uncomfortable, but I'll manage. When I lit the pile, it went up with such force that some of the splashed gasoline was propelled from the flame and caught the nearby grass. My foot, I'm afraid, was also a victim of the explosion.

It was weird, though. It wasn't like you might imagine. There were no fireworks or grand plumes of flame.

I lit the lighter wand and there was a resounding BOOM and WHOOOSH as the vapors caught. I guess I was somewhat prepared for it because I instantly closed my eyes. Good thing, too, since I'm missing half of my eyelashes. The next few seconds are a blur of stumbling backwards in the perpetual dance of trying to regain my balance. Of course, it usually ends up the same way despite your efforts with you landing hard on your backside. This time was no different and I lay on the grass for a moment focusing my thoughts to the pain in my burning legs to stave off the looming shock that threatened to wash over me as I struggled to catch the wind that had been knocked hard out of my lungs.

There were no thoughts of Stop, Drop, and roll. I'd done well enough to get back away from the flames and other than the burning sensation on my legs, there was no reason to believe that I was on fire. I am not usually a shorts wearing kind of guy, but had I been wearing pants that night I would most assuredly caught flame. Instead, I stood up and walked over to a patch of grass that had been struck with flaming petrol and stomped it out.

It wasn't until after my wife walked out and admired the fire and the thought of sitting outside with me watching the dancing flames that I took the time to survey the damage. My leg hair was burnt off to the follicles, my skin pink from the burn. It hurt when I walked or moved and my shoe seemed to agitate a burnt spot on my ankle. It wasn't until I walked inside and got a good look in the light that I noticed that the top layer of skin had apparently melted off.

Luckily, the bottom layer wasn't as bad as it could have been. I was quite fortunate to get away with such minor injuries. Next time I think I'll toss a lit object into the fire from a safer distance, rather than attempting to light it so close. Lesson learned. :)