Don't forget that programming is sort of like writing (you're going to scream here on the grounds that it's like math, but nyah)... I think a lot of us don't really enjoy writing, but we do it anyway because that's what we're wired to do. I find a lot of my projects take simply *ages* to get off the ground, simply because there's nothing worse than a blank page (buffer?).
I'm going to reiterate my plea to you and your reading audience to be on the lookout for people who might need a real genuine-article tech writer (and let you get back to grinding code!), as I'm rapidly going broke. :)
"Don't forget that programming is sort of like writing"
Sort of; in some ways. But not quite.
"(you're going to scream here on the grounds that it's like math, but nyah)"
Sort of; in some ways. But not quite.
(Yeah, I know I'm supposed to say it's "like math", but despite being able to see enough of the math in it to understand why a math education is useful to a programmer, it feels completely different from doing math. In many important ways, it is more like writing than math. But it differs in large respects from writing as well. Programming is its own creative art.)
I agree (and can find quotes to support a claim that many authors do as well) that the blank page is the most awkward/difficult step. In writing and in programming, but more so in writing.
(And yeah, I've been keeping my eye open for tech writing jobs that are either in your area or open to telecommuting. I've got a couple other tech writer friends I'm watching out for as well. I wish more project managers understood how much easier their lives -- and the lives of their programmers -- would be if they assigned greater value to tech writers. And testers.)
(no subject)
I'm going to reiterate my plea to you and your reading audience to be on the lookout for people who might need a real genuine-article tech writer (and let you get back to grinding code!), as I'm rapidly going broke. :)
(no subject)
Sort of; in some ways. But not quite.
"(you're going to scream here on the grounds that it's like math, but nyah)"
Sort of; in some ways. But not quite.
(Yeah, I know I'm supposed to say it's "like math", but despite being able to see enough of the math in it to understand why a math education is useful to a programmer, it feels completely different from doing math. In many important ways, it is more like writing than math. But it differs in large respects from writing as well. Programming is its own creative art.)
I agree (and can find quotes to support a claim that many authors do as well) that the blank page is the most awkward/difficult step. In writing and in programming, but more so in writing.
(And yeah, I've been keeping my eye open for tech writing jobs that are either in your area or open to telecommuting. I've got a couple other tech writer friends I'm watching out for as well. I wish more project managers understood how much easier their lives -- and the lives of their programmers -- would be if they assigned greater value to tech writers. And testers.)