Technical Writing Vs. Narrative Fiction, Part 1

I work as a technical writer for a software company. I spend way more time per week writing technical documentation than I do writing fiction or coming up with blog posts. When I tell most people I’m a technical writer, they look at me quizzically, canting their head like a dog agitated by a high pitch. I explain that a tech writer creates technical documents like software user’s guides, installation guides, and online help. The general public uses this type of documentation all the time. Whenever you are on your PC or laptop using a program (such as Microsoft Word) and click that Help icon, the help system and all the accompanying topics that display were written (hopefully) by a tech writer.

After juggling both technical writing and narrative fiction, I’ve found that there are some similarities between the two types of writing. Especially after being asked questions like, “Does the tech writing take away from the novels?” or “Is it hard to switch gears between the two?” The two types are different for lots of reasons, but that doesn’t mean that a strength used in technical writing can’t cross over and be used in a novel. And vice versa.

Starting with this post (and running for the next two or three) I’ll compare and contrast elements of both technical writing and narrative prose, highlighting where they overlap. Elements include:

- Planning
- Research
- Telling a story
- Editing
- Structure
- Consistency
- Technical and Peer Reviews

I’ll conclude by discussing whether technical writing is a good career for a fiction writer and ask questions to help you figure out if you would make a good technical writer.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Planning
Tech writing is all about the planning. It works like this: the release schedule of a software product (for example, software that monitors your network and lets you know when connections are failing) is generally very short. Maybe a year. More if you're lucky. That means, as a writer, you have to figure out how to write about a new feature that is part of the software release.

In other words, let’s say this network monitoring software will now have the functionality to work even when there is a physical on-site disaster (for example, an earthquake or hurricane). This new feature is called disaster recovery. I have to monitor the progress of this feature’s development, learn about it, determine who the audience is (who the users are), and then, when development has finished writing the code (you know, C ++ or Java or whatever those guys do) use it to make sure it works like they tell me it's supposed to. Before I start writing, I have to figure out what needs to be documented and, sometimes, how long it will take. In most cases I’ll write an outline, sort of like a table of contents that will highlight what I plan to cover in each chapter.

I talk a lot about outlines on this blog. I’m no stranger to outlines for either tech writing or for novels. I worked on novel outlines before I became a tech writer, but I think my novel outlines have benefited from having to outline and plan all my technical documentation. I feel I now better determine what scenes must go in my novel to move the story along, what scenes I could write but would probably get cut later, which scenes are necessary to include to understand character motivation, and (if I choose to include them in the outline), which scenes end the story.

Before I start writing a novel, I often write a truncated outline so I can figure out the best way to start the book to lead me in the right direction to tell the story I want. I may have no idea what will happen in later scenes, even though I can picture some overarching idea about how the story ends and how to get there. With technical documentation, you have to map out all parts of the document before you start writing, to ensure you are telling the right story for the right user (more about telling a story later). Planning is an aptitude that serves me whether writing on the job or off.

Research
It doesn’t matter if your novel takes place in a small Florida town and you want to know what the local sheriff does all day or you're writing about a graphical user interface—you need to do some research after you decide what subject to write about.

You can start your research online. Yes, I Google and Wikipedia at work. You have to be careful, but public search engines and wikis are not a bad place to start. Of course, nothing compares to interviewing a subject matter expert. Or getting firsthand experience. Or both.

Go to Florida. Go to that small town you saw on Google street view. Interview that sheriff. Walk around that small town. I guarantee you’ll garner much more data than you thought was there in the first place. Firsthand experience is imperative. If you can't get firsthand experience with a subject, then talk to somebody who can.

As a tech writer, when I’m faced with writing about a feature or technology I know nothing about, I try to do as much research online as I can. That means seeing if there is generally available information about the topic. Yes, disaster recovery is a recognized industry term. I can find overviews and learn concepts very quickly. Then I go to my company’s internal online resources. This may include an intranet or wiki page where the engineers I work with have posted information about the technology and, hopefully, detailed information about how they are implementing the feature/technology with our product. From this information I start really solidifying the outline/Table of Contents.

After I understand, more or less, what’s going on, I sit down with a subject matter expert (my sheriff) and ask informed questions. I need to know enough to understand at least some of what my subject matter expert tells me. Same goes for interviewing somebody for a novel. You should know going in what questions you want to ask, at least enough to get the conversation going into the direction you hope it takes. You should come away with lots of notes or a full audio tape, and ideas about how to make your story or documentation better. And don't forget to thank the sheriff, and make sure it's okay to contact him later to ask follow-up questions.

Next time: Telling a Story

Kerouac & Lowell

Lowell, Massachusetts is the birth (and resting) place of Jack Kerouac. And since Jack died in October of 1969, October is Kerouac month here in Lowell. And this year marks the 40th anniversary of his death. This weekend we're in the middle of Lowell Celebrates Kerouac. It started Thursday, but if you hurry on down this rainy Saturday you can still catch events like readings from Dr. Sax at Kerouac Park.


If you can't make that, then get downtown by 4 for The Kerouac Places of Downtown Lowell tour. This starts at the Lowell National Historical Park Visitors Center at 246 Market Street (around the corner from Unreliable Narrator's historic condo building). If you don't want to take a walking tour of Lowell in the rain, then find out how you can do it on your own time here.

If that's not your style (plus, it's raining), then check out an open mike starting at 5:30 at Brew’d Awakening, 61 Market Street. Here anybody can read a selection of their favorite Kerouac writing. Or, if you're a writer and Kerouac acolyte, then you can read your own Kerouac-inspired writing.

If you can't get to Lowell until tomorrow, then your best bet is to show up by 11:30 a.m. at Caffé Paradiso on Palmer Street, for a screening of Grave Concerns—A Deadly Road Trip, a documentary filmed during the On the Road scroll exhibit. Despite this gruesome and questionable title, it sounds like an interesting and apt addition to this festival.

Here's the trailer for Grave Concerns:

Two summers ago when the On The Road scroll exhibit hit the Boott Cotton Mills Museum in Lowell, Liz and I attended the opening night festivities.



Here's the scroll. I took this picture before I found out that I wasn't supposed to photograph it, especially with a flash. The flash didn't cause any additional damage, although I did spill some coffee on it:

That's Entertainment!

Last Sunday I helped Liz set up at a craft show in Worcester called stART on the Street.


There were hundreds of craft vendors set up on Park Ave.; a mile of white tents running double down the center line.


Hundreds, nay, thousands of people walked through during the beautiful Sunday, checking out the crafts, food, and entertainment, which included poetry slams, bands, singers, and exotic belly-type dancing.


After I finished my rigorous setting up duties, I went a walkin' to check out the scene. A few yards up Park Street from Liz's tent (she was sharing with Candace of the Intuitive Garden) I spied a store called That’s Entertainment.



I went to college in Worcester back in the day, but I don't remember any store like this. And it looks like it's been there awhile. (However, I do remember Al-bums. Stacks of cool vinyl.)


That's Entertainment is a warehouse chock full of new and used comics, graphic novels, action figures, toys, records, books, and other various memorabilia and ephemera.


I spent almost 2 hours browsing, checking out the huge selection of unusual comics and graphic novels. At the back of the store I found a trove of used books. Mostly fantasy and sci-fi, but also some tasty pulp novels from the fifties. I picked up a lot of 12 John D. MacDonald paperbacks.


Mostly pre-Travis McGee era titles, with names like One Monday We Killed Them All, You Live Once, and Dead Low Tide. Complete with appropriately lurid cover illustrations:



Pretty hot stuff for the 1950s. I've only read titles from MacDonald's color-themed Travis McGee novels (Nightmare in Pink, Darker Than Amber, A Purple Place for Dying) so it'll be fun to see how it all began.

I picked up a new graphic novel I'd been looking for called Filthy Rich. A crime story that takes place in the 60s. I guess my mind has climbed in the wayback machine and broke off the knob somewhere around the end of the film noir era.


I couldn't resist this oddity from Peter Bagge (creator of Hate and Neat Stuff) called Apocalypse Nerd, about a couple of buddies who return to Seattle after camping in the mountains and discover their city's been nuked. Hilarity ensues.


Actually, it kind of does, with Bagge's spot-on character studies of nervous losers and slackers in extremis. This is the first of 6 issues. Guess I'll have to track down the other five to see how it turns out for A. Nerd.

When I finally went up front to pay, I realized the place was jammed with curious and collectors alike. Maybe this had something to do with the crowd:


The next time you're in Worcester, head on down to Park Ave. and check out That's Entertainment. Oh, and see you at next year's stART on the Street.

Prime Directive

I try not to get too personal about my writing on this blog. It’s challenging enough to write fiction without the blogosphere witnessing. It’s like exercising in public—a little too much information. But part of being a writer (generally) is that we want others to know about it; to share in news of its loving conception and difficult birth. I always hope for a reaction like, “What a beautiful baby!” Even backhanded compliments are welcome. I’ll settle for, “What a unique child,” or even, “He doesn’t look anything like you.”

Currently my writing output is stuck between conception (writing a novel outline), birth (jump starting another draft), short story revision, and dawdling indecision (writing this blog post). I’ve approached my novel from multiple angles, switched up characters’ ages, personalities, and back stories, but I’m still not satisfied that I’ve hit upon the correct mix of variables that will see me through completion of a successful final draft.

Writing outlines can be part of the writing process. Some writers can’t start writing until they have a complete outline. Some writers blanch at the mention of writing from an outline. Then there are writers like New York Times bestselling author Ms. X, who had been researching the shit out of her second novel for a few years before she signed a book deal, and faced a hard deadline. Before she wrote a word, she wrote an outline. To finish her book on time, she needed to know not just her characters and plot, but also the structure before she started writing. She didn’t have the time to rework structure halfway through a third draft. She couldn't have completed her new novel on deadline otherwise. And from what I hear, she’s met the deadline. Thank you, Outline!

My prime directive is writing. Time for writing is my luxury. Or rather, not having a deadline. It makes up for not having a New York Times bestseller. Well, almost. Conception can be a fertile writing experience, but am I using my time appropriately? No amount of preparation replaces a finished short story or a novel draft.

Is an outline the first step or just a bluff?

Books in My Lobby 8

So many books, so few lobbies. Here we have a non-fiction selection, American Prometheus, the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Those piercing blue eyes, that cigarette, that Fedora, and the history of the atomic bomb in one handy book. Winner of the National Book Critics Award for Biography. MEEEOW.

Don't feel like buying the book? Check out all you need to know about atomic bomb history here. Interested in becoming an atomic scientist yourself? Then check this out.