Would you be a good tech writer? Three must-have skills

You could be a good technical writer. But are you easily bored? Do you have a hard time with new technology or applications? Then probably not. Technical writing requires maddening attention to detail and having to learn things that are kind of boring. You have to have the temperament for that.

I have been a technical writer for over 30 years. I was lucky to sort of fall into it, and I grew with the field. I have written for naive users, very technical users and everything in-between. I have done online documentation, websites, process flows, test cases, user guides, presentations, training, implementation guides, magazines, brochures, and more.

Technical writing has expanded to include all sorts of content including online help, process flows, use cases, procedures, API guides and other documents for a developer audience. I always say that nowadays you will see Technical Writer <slash> something else in job ads, such as Tech Writer/Project Coordinator, Tech Writer/Trainer, Tech Writer/Business Analyst, etc.

A lot of people hear about tech writing, how it pays well, and that tech writers are in demand, and how it lends itself to partial or total remote working, and they say “Sign me up!”

But not everyone makes a good technical writer. Or they may be good, but they won’t…