Top products from r/techwriting
We found 2 product mention on r/techwriting. We ranked the 2 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 2 product mention on r/techwriting. We ranked the 2 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
There are fewer of us who come from the technology side and into writing, so if you are willing to put in a little bit of work to master the mechanics of writing, you will be in demand. You will probably command a slightly higher salary than many other tech writers. This has been my experience, anyway.
I LOVE this career, and I came from a similar background as you. I don't get calls in the middle of the night because a server is down or a critical bug was found. I do get to dig deep into technology and understand and use complex things. I get to play with software before anyone else does, sometimes even before the QA teams as they occasionally rely on MY documentation to help them understand what they are testing and how it is intended to function. I still get to file bug reports, but I don't have to unravel someone else's (or my own) spaghetti code to try to figure out how to fix it. :-)
Pick up a copy of Strunk & White. Read it. Reread it occasionally. This is 90% of what you need to know.
Then, find as many examples of quality technical writing as you can and absorb the style, just as you would do when learning a new programming language. Grasp the grammar and syntax and typical style.
If I had to recommend one other resource, it would be The Insider's Guide to Technical Writing by Krista Van Laan.