Technical Writing: Systematic Advantage

When my wife and I watch campy movies, there's a typical theme of a writer who has writer's block. The writers in these movies try to write something but can't. Or when they start writing on the computer, they let out a sigh, deleting everything till it's a blank screen. While these scenarios are exaggerated, there is some truth to it.

It's difficult when you must create something that relies on your mind. I know. I've written a novel before. Writer's block is always lurking around the corner. When you write, that constant inner critic is always trying to lead you to that corner. Those who are career authors, I don't envy them. God bless them for keeping their imagination going, though they struggle to craft meaningful words on the pictures they're trying to paint.

We technical writers have a systematic advantage over our creative counterparts because we document things based on what we can see and use. (I mean systematic, not systemic because while the writing process is universal, we're in a different category than creative writing. I suppose you could say we have a systemic advantage. In any case, we have an advantage.) If you're documenting user interfaces, we can walk through each step of the way to help us write. So the chances of writer's block decrease, though it can still happen.

Should we feel ashamed that we do have this over other writers? Absolutely not! But we should be thankful that we don't have those blocks. Of course, our blockers are from SMEs, developers, or whatever. We can't write anything until they're removed. But once we remove these blockers, we are to free to write till we're done. Our blockers are external not internal, so we have an advantage. So let's use it to create great documentation. Since we don't suffer writer's block like the creatives, there's no excuse for sloppy documents. Am I saying perfection? No! There's no such thing as perfect documentation. But we can strive towards excellence.

So, my hat goes off to you creatives for doing what you do. Keep writing! Thank you for building those worlds for us to enjoy and think about.