Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Can technical writing suck less

I think what you are missing is that all writing tells a story. Just because there is no love story or car chase, that does not mean your technical writing is not telling a story. You are just tell...

posted 8y ago by Simon White‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:05:02Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/21107
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Simon White‭ · 2019-12-08T05:05:02Z (almost 5 years ago)
I think what you are missing is that _all_ writing tells a story. Just because there is no love story or car chase, that does not mean your technical writing is not telling a story. You are just telling the story of hooking up a Chromecast. That is actually an exciting story for people who just got a Chromecast. They are your characters! Don’t diminish their excitement with crappy writing. Get excited along with them — we’re Chromecasting! — just as you would get excited along with a fictional character who is falling in love or having any adventure.

Get your head right, get into the story, and then write a personable, concise, helpful, plain language, understandable-by-all guide to Chromecasting that is a joy to read and use and that improves people’s lives by making their new Chromecast setup into a fun event with maybe a minor pitfall here and there that was easily solved, rather than a horrible chore that robbed them of hours of their precious life and then left them disappointed.

Instead of a fictional character waiting for you to tell them what to do, you have a community of real characters waiting for you to tell them what to do. You can make a million lives better with great writing. It is a serious responsibility and a great opportunity to grow as a writer and as a person.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-02-25T05:37:21Z (over 8 years ago)
Original score: 4